Only Floyd Schofield Sr. could bury a man and invite him over in the same interview.
Asked by Mill City Boxing about Shakur Stevenson’s release from Zuffa Boxing, Sr. didn’t dance on the grave. “I’m happy for him,” he said — before delivering the real sentence: Shakur is about to learn how political boxing is. Coming from Sr., that’s not a talk-show line. This is a father who watched his own son get passed over in the amateur system, who tells the story of Floyd Jr. sparring at regionals and never getting picked, and who has been saying ever since that connections, not talent, hand out opportunities in this sport. In Sr.’s world, Shakur didn’t just leave a promoter. He enrolled in the same school the Schofields graduated from the hard way.
Then the family business came out, and it came out flat: “When we do fight him, I guarantee you we gonna knock him out.” And the reason, in five words that will follow Shakur until somebody proves otherwise: “One thing about Shakur, he can’t punch.” That’s the Schofield camp’s whole thesis — the same one they’ve aimed at Abdullah Mason — and Sr. laid out the order of operations to prove it. First, the fight everybody at 135 is circling: Floyd Jr. and Mason unify. Then the winner fights Shakur at 135. No catchweight games, no rehydration-clause wreckage like the Haney negotiations that Sr. waded into with disgust — just the best of the division settling it in order.
And yet — this is the part that makes Sr. different from every other loud father in boxing — the respect is real and specific. He reminded everyone that Ronnie Shields trained all three of them: his son, Shakur, and Devin Haney. He praised Shakur for telling Tank Davis he’d fight him at 147: “I like that type of talk.” He even opened the door of the family’s Texas gym and said Shakur is welcome to train there.
Read that combination again. Happy for you. Come train with us. And when the contract finally gets signed, my son knocks you out. That’s not hate. That’s a camp that stands on business — and on Sr.’s telling, business at 135 runs through Texas now, whether Shakur’s free agency likes it or not.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
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