Floyd Schofield Sr. says his son Floyd Jr. (18-0, 12 KOs) could face Edwin De Los Santos or Andy Cruz for the WBA belt in 2025.
It'll be a big jump up in competition for the 22-year-old Schofield to fight the big puncher De Los Santos or the 2020 Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs) for the WBA belt. Those are advanced fighters, and Schofield might not be ready to face either of those killers.
WBA rankings
De Los Santos (16-2, 14 KOs) hasn't fought in a year since his close 12-round unanimous decision loss to Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBC lightweight title on November 16. It's unknown if De Los Santos will be eager to return to the ring against Schofield for what would be a hard fight.
It's unknown if Tank Davis plans to move up to 140 or go without belts and save money on the expensive sanctioning fees that champions are stuck paying. Tank is popular enough that he no longer needs a world title to validate him in the eyes of the boxing public.
No matter who Schofield fights for the WBA title, he's going to need to raise his game from the way he performed in his last fight against Rene Tellez Giron on November 2nd. Schofield was dropped in the 11th round and took a lot of hard shots. Giron was nowhere near the talent level of De Los Santos, Cruz, or Tank.
"Either way, we're getting the title next year. We just don't know who we're going to fight next year," said Floyd Schofield Sr. to MillCity Boxing about his son Floyd Jr. "Frank Martin. Keyshawn is running. He's trying to fight Tank or go to 140. He don't want to fight us for the title."
Keyshawn is targeting WBO lightweight champion Denys Berinchyk for a world title in 2025, and he won't want to take a grueling fight against Schofield. Top Rank has been protecting Keyshawn, matching him carefully the way they did Edgar Berlanga before he bailed on them.
"It don't seem like Shakur is going to fight us for the title. So, we'll wait to see who they give us. Probably Edwin [De Los Santos] or possibly the guy [Andy Cruz] that beat Keyshawn in the amateurs in the Olympics. One of those two," said Schofield Sr.
It's going to be Cruz or De Los Santos that Schofield fights, but he may live to regret fighting either of them. His last fight against Giron showed that he's NOT ready to fight the Cuban Andy Cruz or the big power-puncher De Los Santos.
Cruz would be the far more difficult of the two due to his boxing skills and pedigree. De Los Santos's money from his fight against Shakur last year might have sapped some of the ambition he once had before he got the payday.
"Yeah, that's who it should be because he's right under us [De Los Santos]. I don't think it should be Frank Martin," said Schofield Sr. "Edwin is #3, and Andy [Cruz] is #4, so that would make sense.
"It's not a jump. Rene is harder than all of them," said Schofield Sr. when asked if it would be a big jump for Floyd Jr. to go from fighting Rene Tellez Giron in his last fight to battling Cruz or De Los Santos for the WBA title. "Rene is more durable than all of them, and he hits harder."
Schofield Sr. is kidding himself if he believes Rene Giron is a harder fight for his son than Cruz and De Los Santos. Giron isn't anywhere near the level of those two fighters, and Schofield went life & death with him.
"Shakur has got ten knockouts. Rene has got one more knockout than Shakur. Edwin is cracking, but I don't think he's going to have a chin that Rene had."