Former amateur star Raymer Walker is giving Floyd ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield no chance of defeating WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22 in their fight in Riyadh.
Walker sparred with Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) and found it impossible to land him anything, which is why he wanted to improve his own defense. He says the only punches he threw were on the rare occasion that Shakur let him.
No way
Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) and his father, Floyd Sr., discussed his road to a title shot against Shakur. ‘Kid Austin’ didn’t earn a shot in the normal way of beating anyone of note during his four-year pro career.
Although not ranked in the top 15 by the WBC, the World Boxing Association ranked him #2. He earned that ranking by beating middling opposition, not contenders.
Schofield’s promoter, 1992 Olympic gold medalist Oscar De La Hoya, did not want to take the fight, believing he was not experienced enough to fight Stevenson. De La Hoya labeled Kid Austin a “rookie” and wanted him to develop more before fighting for a world title.
Some believe Schofield is rushing into this fight for money, wanting to get a nice payday before one of the suitors exposes him. It wasn’t a good sign that second division Rene Tellez Giron dropped him in his last fight on November 2nd.
I can’t wait to start camp I miss sparring lol
— Shakur Stevenson (@ShakurStevenson) December 13, 2024
“He has no chance.” He won’t stand a chance,” Raymer Walker said Fighthippe about Floyd Schofield having no chance of defeating WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson on February 22nd in Riyadh.
“He’s a good talker, but there’s a difference between talking and being with him (Stevenson). I actually sparred with Shakur. He’s not going to be able to hit Shakur,” Walker said of ‘Kid Austin’ Schofield. “Honestly, I don’t think anyone can beat Shakur.”
“Yeah, it’s hard (to kill Shakur). You have to take what he gives you. Whatever he gives you, you will land. If he doesn’t give it to you, you won’t get it. He’s the most defensive fighter I’ve ever been around.”
That’s it it’s not fair to the fans for Shakur to defend against Schofield instead of facing one of these talented contenders:
- Andy Cruz
- Edwin De Los Santos: *A rematch for Shakur to show that his poor performance in November 2023 was indeed due to an arm injury and not because he was terrified of De Los Santos’ strength.
- Raymond Muratalla
- Keyshavn Davis
- Abdullah Mason
“I learned from that.” It made me work a lot harder on my defense,” Walker said of his sparring with Shakur. “Once I saw that I couldn’t hit him as much as I’ve hit other people, I had to get a defense that way.” I don’t know what it is. He is different. He works on the strike and doesn’t get hit a lot. So I’ve been working on it a lot too. I could see myself like that.
“Not early in my career, but later as I get older,” Walker said when asked if he could see himself developing into a no-hitter defensive fighter like Shakur.
Walker did not say whether Stevenson was on his bike the entire time, running around the ring during their sparring sessions. We saw that from Shakur in his fights with De Los Santos, Artem Harutyunyan and Jeremy Nakatalia. The only fight in the last three years where Shakur looked good was against Shuichiro Yoshino, and that fighter didn’t look world class.
