Floyd Schofield erased a lot of lingering bad feelings when he ran through Tevin Farmer in their lightweight bout on the undercard of Jake Paul vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday.
Schofield faced significant backlash in February when he was set to face Shakur Stevenson on the undercard of the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol in Saudi Arabia. After talking significant levels of trash to land the Stevenson fight, the 22-year-old Schofield pulled out at the last minute, leaving Stevenson to fight Josh Padley on short notice.
Schofield was thrashed by Stevenson and fans after Schofield’s father said his son had been poisoned by members of Stevenson’s team.
On Saturday, Schofield was only a -250 favorite against Farmer, a former junior lightweight world champion, but it took just 35 seconds for Schofield to drop Farmer with a sweeping right hand.
Farmer managed to beat the count but was clearly compromised and unsteady on his feet. Smelling blood in the water, Schofield continued to attack, quickly dropping Farmer a second time.
The referee allowed an unsteady Farmer to continue onward but was forced to jump in after Schofield connected with a few more punches.
The final punchstats were impressive, with Schofield only needing to land eight of 14 punches to get two knockdowns and the finish. Farmer only landed one punch and only managed to throw two.
It was an impressive performance for Schofield, as Farmer had gone 22 rounds with William Zepeda in his two most recent fights, losing a split decision and majority decision.
After the fight, an emotional Schofield discussed the toll the situation surrounding the Stevenson fight had taken on him.
“It just feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” Schofield said. “I’ve been doubted since what happened in February. A lot of people didn’t think I would win this fight. It’s just a lot of emotions. … “After what happened in February I was depressed and wanted to quit boxing and not be here so much. Reading the comments and everything … my baby boy kept me here.
“I never had doubt. Just because I read the comments it made me feel some type of way because people switched up on me.”