Schofield misses Grand Arrivals, speculation over weight issues ahead of Shakur fight

Floyd Schofield missed today’s Grand Arrivals event, fueling speculation as to the status of his fight with Shakur Stevenson.

Floyd Schofield missed today’s “Grand Arrivals” event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ahead of Saturday’s challenge against WBC lightweight titleholder Shakur Stevenson.

There’s already plenty of chatter out there, including a now-deleted post from Schofield’s X account about him possibly being “poisoned” by Stevenson’s “massage lady” or SNAC, against whom the Schofield team have been railing for days now.

Promoter Eddie Hearn, however, told iFL TV that he thinks there could be a simple issue of Schofield working to make a required Wednesday check-in weight, due to a British Boxing Board of Control rule, as the BBBofC is the actual overseeing commission of most events in Saudi Arabia, including this one.

“I don’t represent Floyd Schofield. What I believe is — one of the issues, and I’ll be completely honest, it’s a bit of a pain in the ass,” Hearn said. “(The BBBofC) have a very strict rule of a check weight on the Wednesday of fight week. Now I’m not saying that rule is a bad rule, but nowhere else in the world, to my knowledge, of any major commission, has that rule.”

“All of a sudden, you’ve got a situation where a fighter like Floyd Schofield has to make a check weight tomorrow,” Hearn continued. “He might want to train tonight. He really doesn’t want to be coming to the Grand Arrivals going, ‘Hello, everybody!’ He’s getting ready for the check weight tomorrow. That’s why I believe he’s not here tonight. But that’s a question for Golden Boy, not for Eddie Hearn.”

Stevenson (22-0, 10 KO) has previously said he wouldn’t be surprised if Schofield (18-0, 12 KO) pulled out of the fight, and this situation will — until or unless it’s cleared up — only give that idea some fuel, at least for a few hours or whatever.

It should be noted that Schofield was present and in good spirits yesterday for other media work in Riyadh, and for now, Stevenson vs Schofield remains on Saturday’s card, but it is incredibly unusual for fighters to miss a “Grand Arrivals” event.