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Floyd Schofield reacted with amusement to Shakur Stevenson telling the media final weekend that he hopes he doesn’t again out of their February twenty second battle in Riyadh. ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) says Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) isn’t the kind of menace that may make him wish to pull out.
Schofield says he has “passport” issues, which stored him from touring to London to participate in Turki Al-Sheikh’s Ring Award. In any other case, he would have been there to be seen and provides interviews, identical to the numerous different fighters who acquired their invitations.
One-handed Shakur?
The challenger, Schofield, doesn’t view WBC light-weight champion Shakur as some harmful fighter as a result of he’s not a puncher, and he’s proper. The Newark, New Jersey native Shakur is a pure 100% boxer who retreats when met with strain and exhibits no willingness to face within the pocket if his opponents have energy. Stevenson might be essentially the most timid champion within the sport and exhibits no will to battle.
In Stevenson’s final battle towards Artem Harutyunyan, he held his floor a lot of the time as a result of the 34-year-old couldn’t punch. However even in that battle, Shakur was working. That’s why the followers began leaving in giant numbers, heading in direction of the exits by the eighth spherical. This was in Shakur’s hometown of Newark on the Prudential Middle.
The Glass Hand
Shakur’s surgically repaired proper hand is the true query mark on this battle as a result of, in a video final week, he nonetheless didn’t use it whereas hitting the mitts with one in all his coaches. I don’t know Shakur’s probabilities on this battle if that tumbler hand falls aside. Schofield is just too sturdy and throws too many punches for a one-armed Kur to outlive.
With simply 38 days earlier than the February twenty second card, it’s not an excellent signal that Stevenson nonetheless isn’t utilizing that hand. An issue isn’t going to go away in 5 weeks. If anybody has hand surgical procedure, it takes loads longer than 5 weeks to get better.
“I thought for what? He don’t bring nothing to the table to make a person back out of a fight. But that’s Shakur. He’s always going to have something smart to say. Hopefully, he keeps the same energy February 22nd, but no one is backing out of the fight,” mentioned Floyd Schofield to MillCity Boxing, reacting to Shakur Stevenson saying that he hopes he doesn’t again out of the battle after his no-show on the Ring Awards in London final Saturday.
“That’s what he’s supposed to say. If feel thie same way about him,” mentioned Schofield, speaking a video interview the place Shakur says, ‘Deep down inside, he [Kid Austin] knows he can’t beat me.’
“He’s no threat to me. I can’t bash him for saying what he’s supposed to, but I wouldn’t have took the fight if I didn’t feel that way. He must be self-projecting because I’m here, I’m training and getting my sparring,” mentioned Schofield about one other video of Shakur saying that he’s “Worried that he [Floyd] might not show up.”
