Floyd Schofield Sr. is not staying quiet about a matchup that has never materialized. The trainer and father of lightweight contender Floyd Schofield went on record with MillCity Boxing to lay out exactly why he believes a professional fight between his son and WBO lightweight champion Abdullah Mason has never been seriously pursued, and why he thinks it never will be on Mason’s team’s terms.
His argument rests on two pillars: shared history inside the ring and what he describes as deliberate manipulation of the sanctioning body rankings.
Sparring and amateur experience tell the story, Schofield Sr. says
The elder Schofield’s most direct claim is that the two fighters have already tested each other, and that Mason’s camp came away from those experiences with a clear sense of how a professional fight would unfold. He says the two lightweights have crossed paths both in sparring sessions and in the amateur ranks, and that those encounters are the real reason a professional matchup has never been explored.
From his perspective, Mason’s team is not avoiding the fight out of scheduling complications or business considerations. They are avoiding it because they already have an answer they do not like. He says he has video evidence of the amateur meeting and is confident in what the footage shows.
Rankings manipulation is keeping Schofield out of contention, father claims
Beyond the personal history between the two fighters, Schofield Sr. also pointed to what he sees as a broader pattern of political interference in the sanctioning body rankings that has kept his son away from mandatory positions in multiple organizations.
He noted that Floyd is not ranked in the top 10 by the WBO and sits at No. 17 in the WBC rankings, a positioning he attributes not to the quality of his son’s performances but to deliberate efforts to shield certain champions from dangerous challengers. He specifically referenced Shakur Stevenson by name in the context of the WBC ranking, suggesting the organization arranged its rankings to keep Floyd away from a title shot with the former champion.
Sanctioning body rankings in boxing have long been a source of controversy, with critics across the sport regularly pointing to financial relationships, political considerations and promotional alignments as factors that influence where fighters are placed regardless of their in-ring records. Schofield Sr. is adding his voice to that long-running conversation from a personal and pointed angle.
The strategy going forward
Rather than waiting for a voluntary matchup that his camp believes will never come from Mason’s side, Schofield Sr. says the plan is straightforward. Keep winning, keep moving up and eventually force the issue through a mandatory position that leaves no room for avoidance.
He was direct about the mindset. The team is no longer focused on chasing Mason or appealing to his camp. The goal is to climb the rankings to a point where a title fight becomes an obligation rather than a negotiation. Until then, the focus remains on continuing to build Floyd’s record and his position in the division.
Public pressure as a boxing strategy
The comments follow a familiar pattern in professional boxing, where camps frequently apply pressure through the media when a desired matchup has not come together through private negotiations. Whether Schofield Sr.’s claims about sparring, amateur results and ranking manipulation are fully accurate is impossible to verify independently, but the strategy of going public serves a purpose regardless. It keeps Floyd Schofield’s name in the conversation, positions Mason’s camp as the obstacle and builds a narrative around the fight that could generate interest if it ever does get made.
Mason currently holds the WBO lightweight title and has been one of the more closely watched rising names in the division. Whether a fight with Schofield ever happens will ultimately depend on how quickly Floyd climbs into a mandatory position and whether the business side of boxing eventually aligns to make it unavoidable.
For now, his father appears content to keep the pressure on publicly while his son does the work inside the ring.
