Floyd Schofield says Shakur Stevenson is an emotional, hyper-sensitive “Diva” with a developmental level of seven years. Besides that, he says he doesn’t like Shakur because he’s “ignorant.”
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) will challenge the highly hyped but untested Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) for his WBC lightweight title this Saturday night on February 22nd on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will be shown live on DAZN PPV.
The “7-Year-Old” Mind
The 22-year-old Schofield says he can’t wait to see how Shakur reacts when he starts hitting him with his power shots, and if he does, he will be tagging him. He feels that Stevenson will come to him once he begins hitting him, which is a pretty accurate observation.
One of Shakur’s weaknesses is that he gets upset when his opponent hits him and immediately wants to pay them back. He’s not calculated with that approach. That’s how Robeisy Ramirez beat Shakur in the 2016 Olympics. The Cuban would tag Shakur with a good shot, and he’d lose his temper and charge forward, wildly swinging. Robeisy would then nail him with shots.
“He’s a diva. He gets super emotional over nothing. It’s boxing. You’re going to have people talk bad about your performances. In my last fight, I got a unanimous win, and people couldn’t find one thing I did right,” said Floyd Schofield to Fight Hub TV, talking about Shakur Stevenson being an insecure, mature person.
“He’s the only person to take things to heart. It gets annoying. It’s like, bro, grow up. I swear, he’s like a seven-year-old. My son is more of a man than him, and he’s four months old. I don’t like him as an individual. He’s just ignorant. It’s not personal. That’s just my opinion of him. This fight is just to get to the next level.
“I don’t care if he thinks it’s personal or not. To him, it might be. I’m just going in there to do my job. So, that’s on him. I want to challenge myself. A lot of people aren’t doing that because they don’t want to challenge themself.”
Stevenson says he’s not bothered by the comments from fans, but he is. That’s why he spends so much time firing back at his critics on X. It’s unwinnable because the problem is with his boring fighting style, which he cannot change without his career going down the drain.
“I want Shakur in his prime. I want the chance to take his belt. I told my dad, ‘Make the fight happen.’ Make him fight,” said Schofield when asked what he must do to beat Shakur. “There are times that you’ve got to make him come to you. You’ve got to make him get desperate. He’s going to get hit, and we’re going to see if he can take those hits.”
