Floyd Schofield reacted with amusement at Shakur Stevenson diminishing his first-round knockout of Tevin Farmer last Saturday night.
Shakur has brushed off Schofield’s knockout, saying on X, “Any fighter dangerous in the first round, especially these lil kids.” In other words, it wasn’t skills and training by Schofield (19-0, 13 KOs) that got him the victory. It was just simple aggression from a younger fighter.
When Schofield was told of WBC lightweight champion Shakur’s comment, he said he needed to focus on his fight against William Zepeda on July 12th, because he’s “coming.”
Zepeda (33-0, 27 KOs) is seen as a real threat against Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs), who has been matched carefully by his promoters since his poor performance against the big puncher Edwin De Los Santos in 2023. Shakur has been matched against exclusively weak opposition since being booed out of the ring in the De Los Santos fight.
Farmer KO: Irresponsible or Skill?
“He might want to take some of that advice into the [William] Zepeda fight. He’s got something else to worry about. Zepeda is coming. So, he better be on his A-game,” said Schofield to the media during last Saturday night’s post-fight press conference, reacting to being told that Shakur Stevenson posted on X, diminishing his win over Tevin Farmer.
Stevenson had further devalued Schofield’s win by adding, “Don’t get hyped too off Tev being irresponsible.”
What Shakur is saying here is that Schofield’s knockout was a result of Farmer being “irresponsible” rather than being a product of Floyd’s talent and skills. He’s saying it was a mistake on Farmer’s part, rather than the training and strategy employed by Schofield. He’s not a big enough person to give him credit for his win. Shakur has to frame it as an error on Farmer’s part.
“Of course, I would love the winner of that fight. But like I said, both of them have a hard night against each other,” said Schofield about fighting the winner of the Shakur vs. Zepeda fight. “Me and Shakur have got unfinished business. That’s eventually going to happen, and I’ll be able to prove what I was going to do in February.”
Schofield can forget about getting a fight against Shakur if he’s victorious against Zepeda. He wants the Gervonta Davis fight. Even if he doesn’t get it, he’s not going to look in Schofield’s direction. What little chance he had of fighting Stevenson disappeared after his performance against Farmer. The last thing Stevenson wants is to face a contender with one-punch power.