Unbeaten Texan Floyd Schofield took advantage of his opportunity to headline for Golden Boy in a dominant decision to defeat Haskell Rhodes Saturday night in the 10 round lightweight main event in San Antonio, Texas.
All three judges cards read 100-87 indicating the dominance for Schofield, who improved to 15-0, with his performance in the bout.
The fight became the main event on Thursday, when it was learned that unbeaten welterweight Vergil Ortiz had collapsed in training Wednesday and his welterweight clash with fellow unbeaten Eimantas Stanionis was cancelled.
Back to the performance by Schofield. As expected, he was in complete control scoring from early on in the bout with hard lead left hooks and using his superior hand speed to land combinations on the older Rhodes.
Schofield landed big later in the bout
The action picked up in the 7th, when the rising star Schofield landed a solid overhand right and then a booming left that Rhodes walked right into for knockdown #1 of the bout. Rhodes got up, took the mandatory eight count, but then was pummeled by rights and lefts. A series of some 10 punches dropped Rhodes again and with more than :45 left, the bout appeared all but over.
However, Haskell survived and made it to the eighth round. But, Schofield was all over him again and landed a thudding left to the ribs that put Rhodes down for a third time. He did get up, again, at the count of eight, but it was all Schofield the rest of the round.
Haskell somehow survived, but was clearly on the verge of losing on a TKO. Still, he came out for the ninth and was aggressive despite eating jabs and hooks still from Schofield. Then, he leapt at Schofield with his head and they clashed with Schofield suffering a nasty gash under his left eye.
The cut didn’t influence the outcome, as Schofield’s corner managed the bleeding for the final round and it was an easy win. The punch stats reflected the young star’s dominance at 137-58 total punches landed for Schofield.
“I aint gonna lie. The man can take a helluva punch. I’m surprised he got up from that first knockdown….he’s tough dude,” Schofield said to DAZN in the ring. “It’s boxing. You’re going to face adversity, but I got it done.”
Schofield had last been in the ring on the undercard of Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia in April in Las Vegas. The New Jersey native made quick work of Jesus Leon on a KO that sent him to motion for the new opportunity for the Golden Boy main event.
And, he clearly is on the way up, as a good looking lightweight contender for 2024.
