Lightweight contender Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) and his opponent Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) both weighed in on Friday and will be meeting this Saturday night at The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
(Credit: Golden Boy / Cris Esqueda)
Schofield and Giron came in at 134.4 lbs during the weigh-in for their clash, live on DAZN. This will be a good test for the 22-year-old Schofield to show if he’s ready for the next level or not. We haven’t seen Schofield up against anyone with a pulse, so it should be interesting to see how he does against Giron. This guy can fight.
Weights
Floyd Schofield Jr 134.4 x. Rene Tellez Giron 134.4
“Whoever wins here, they’ll move on, and they’ll get another main event slot,” said Sergio Mora to DAZN Boxing, talking about the Schofield vs. Giron fight this Saturday.
Mora can’t be talking about Giron because he’s not going to be a main-event fighter even if he wins on Saturday, because he’s going to need more than a win over Schofield to get fans excited about seeing a fighter with three defeats on his resume.
“Specifically with Schofield. I want to see what kind of growth we’re going to get with his boxing style,” said Chris Mannix. “The last few fights, we have seen Floyd Schofield badly cut,” and he has been badly cut because he has an unorthodox lunging style that puts him in significant danger of getting a bad headbutt.”
Schofield throws with big power when charging forward, but he gets clobbered frequently. Once his opponents time him, they start nailing him with shots when he’s jumping in, and that’s where he gets cut.
“We’re talking about cuts that were deep that required long breaks. More importantly, as the level of competition for Floyd Schofield increases, not only will he be in danger of a bad cut, but the right opponent, with the right counter-punching power, is going to catch him. These lunges coming in, they’re going to get him in trouble at some point.
“I think his father has done a really nice job with him up to this point. He has some good people in his corner. I’m of the opinion that this style that Floyd has fought up to this point is unsustainable. You can’t win at the highest level lunging as much as he does,” said Mannix.
We’ve already seen that Schofield’s style is unsuitable for fighting at the top level in his last three fights, and he wasn’t even fighting anyone of note yet. Put him in with Gervonta Davis, and he’ll KO like he did Rolly Romermo. We saw how Gervonta caught him coming in, and knocked him out.
“It’s sustainable because he’s been doing it his entire career. He’s going to get a lot of cuts on his face. He’s probably going to run into bigger shots from bigger punchers,” said Mora about Schofield. “He’s going to have to develop a chin and a heart and peel himself off the canvas, but he’s proven he has a heart.”
It’s going to be interesting to see if Schofield ever makes it to the top-rung fighters or if he’ll get beaten along the way by one of the second-tier guys that Golden Boy are matching him against. The cuts aren’t just coming from head clashes. Schofield is getting hit by shots while lunging in, and the magnifies the power of the punches. He’s just lucky that the opposition he’s been facing aren’t big knockout punchers.
“He’s going to be an exciting fighter and a ticket seller. If they want to maneuver him the right way, he’s going to have to watch out for guys like Giron,” said Mora.
Schofield is heading toward defeat with his style. We already saw that in his fight against Haskell Rhodes, a fighter that he was supposed to beat easily but turned out to be a difficult match for him. If Schofield ever gets to the level of fighters like Shakur Stevenson, Gervonta Davis, and Denys Berinchyk, he may come apart and get knocked out. He’ll probably get through this fight against Giron on Saturday, but that’s only because he’s not a top-tier fighter.
