Abdullah Mason Suggests a June Bout with Floyd Schofield
If the boxing gods smile down on us, there is a potential red hot fight between promising rising lightweight prospects Abdullah Mason (12-0, 10 KO’s) and Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield (16-0, 12 KO’s) brewing. This left field showdown first began creeping into reality when Schofield boldly called out WBC lightweight champion “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson.
Yet, unsurprisingly, the two-division champion expressed zero interest in dancing with the young gun. Instead however, Stevenson suggested that Schofield test his might versus Mason. To this point, Schofield is not taking his sights off of Fearless.
Across the potential ring though, in a recent Q&A with Fight Hype, Abdullah Mason has conveyed his eager willingness to chuck knuckles with Kid Austin.
“The way that I look at it is, Kid Austin is a good up and coming fighter, he is a great prospect. Je is calling Shakur out, he calling [WBC junior welterweight champion] Devin [Haney], he calling the champions out. He wants a piece of everybody and he wants to jump straight to that right now . . . I’m with it . . . That’s his shortcut to Shakur and Shakur is throwing him my way. I’m ready, I’m with it! I can fight him in June! So if he with it, let’s fight in June!”
Abdullah Mason
CLOUDY FORECAST
If briefly playing the role of Vegas bookie, the odds are rather slim that this duel comes together. On top of Schofield giving zero impressions of any intrigue, both competitors are extremely popular and fresh prospects. In this era of boxing, it is highly unlikely that the mutual think-tanks masterminding their careers will endorse taking such a dangerous and unnecessary fight.
If their teams did choose to make this fight a reality, that would be a great event for boxing. For one, it’s a great duel that will almost guarantee top-notch, edge of your seat action for as long as it lasts. Secondly, it will stand as a pleasant departure from the ‘protect your 0 at all costs’ era of boxing that we are currently stuck in.
CHANGE THE NARRATIVE
All too often in boxing, the fans are told that they have to wait on the big fights to let them ‘marinate.’ Which is essentially telling them to wait for what they want now, so that they can pay more for the same thing later. Clearly, this is not a beneficial bargain for the viewing, and paying, public. Aside from this, all too often fights that are left to ‘marinate’ never end up happening.
Anthony Joshua versus Deontay Wilder, Canelo Alvarez versus Demetrius Andrade and Abdul “Tank” Wahid versus Vasily Lomachenko were all deeply craved-for duels that never came to pass. Or, on the flip side, matches like Canelo Alvarez versus Jermell Charlo, Kell Brook versus Amir Khan or Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao do eventually happen but are stale, hollow versions of what they could have been.
Said to say, similar to Frank Martin versus Michel Rivera and Joe Joyce versus Daniel Dubois, Mason and Schofield could throw caution into the wind in a high stakes voluntary rumble. Yet, before whipping up too much of a lather, let’s wait and see if Kid Austin takes the bait. If not, perhaps we’ll get this battle a few years from now.
