Floyd Schofield Sr. Dismisses Abdullah Mason’s Approach As A Mere Promotional Ploy Without Genuine Fight Interest

Floyd Schofield Jr. says he never received any money offer for a fight against lightweight contender Abdullah Mason for the June 7th card on ESPN. Schofield states that Mason’s team just asked him if he wanted to fight him, and he said yes. No attempt was made to start negotiations.

Promotional Chess?

Floyd Sr. believes that there was never any true interest on Abdullah Mason’s team’s part in fighting Schofield Jr. In other words, it was just theatrics. Mason wasn’t about to be allowed to fight someone dangerous like Schofield.

This was more about promoting Mason by associating his name with Schofield’s and giving the impression that he was trying to challenge him. It plays well and gets Mason attention from fans and the media that he usually wouldn’t get because he’s not being promoted.

Schofield Jr. (18-0, 12 KOs) says he thinks it’s strange that Mason’s management sent an offer, and then went and fought someone else. The opponent is 35-year-old Jeremiah Nakathila, whom Mason will fight on the undercard of Keyshawn Davis vs. Edwin De Los Santos on June 7th at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia.

“We didn’t get a contract with an offer. So, we can ask for whatever we want,” said Floyd Schofield Sr. to MillCity Boxing about them never having received a contract offer for a fight against Abdullah Mason on June 7th.

“It’s not a form of ducking by asking what you’d want to get in the ring. Overpricing for what? We didn’t get an offer [from Mason’s promoter]. If we say, ‘Give us $2 million and we’ll take the fight,’ people will say, ‘You shouldn’t get $2 million.’ Why? The promoter didn’t say. We didn’t even get no feedback yet.”

When there’s never even an attempt to negotiate, that’s a red flag that there wasn’t any true interest on Mason’s promotional team’s part in using Schofield as an opponent. If they wanted Floyd Jr, they could have gotten him. That would have been too big of a step up in class for Mason from the lesser guys he’s been fighting. He’s already showing chin problems. Putting him in with a powerful puncher like Schofield would have been a bad idea.

No Offer, Just an Ask

“It ain’t overpricing. We didn’t get anything to overprice from. We didn’t even get an official offer from them. We just got an ask. If they consider that’s ducking, that’s them ducking. We never ducked and we never will,” said Schofield Sr.

Who knows why Top Rank didn’t attempt to negotiate with Schofield? Were they just using his name to get Nakathilia to lower his price in the negotiations? You never know. Fighting Schofield would have helped Mason’s career a lot more than fighting Nakathilia, who was knocked out twice in 2023.

“I find it weird that they sent us an offer and then go fight somebody else, but that’s them,” said Floyd Jr., who feels it’s strange that there was no monetary offer from Mason’s promoters for him to fight. There was no attempt to negotiate. “It really wasn’t [any offer or attempt to negotiate from Mason’s side]. It was just a word. They just said would we like to fight him. That’s it.

“I said, ‘Take the fight.’ I get to spark Mason out and get the fight with Shakur next or Keyshawn. They probably did,” said Schofield Jr. when asked if he thinks Jay Prince laughed when he heard that Schofield Sr. asked for $2.5 million for the Abdullah fight.

“Like I told my dad. ‘We don’t need 2.5. Take a million. Take 1.1. Whatever they’re offering. It don’t matter.’ Let me do what I’m going to do to him, and then we move on,” said Floyd Jr.