Floyd Schofield Sr talks about this sport the way this site likes to hear it: politics and business first, feelings later. Mill City asked him about Devin Haney’s direct move with DAZN — the network even flashed Haney’s name inside its own logo for a few hours — and Senior called it exactly what it is. DAZN did a good move, and they wanted to celebrate closing a deal with the young man. The real story is the middleman getting cut out. Whether a promoter takes 30, 25 or 20 percent, Sr says, that cut is gone when a fighter sits directly with the TV network that actually writes the money. That is the business every fighter should be studying.
From there, the Shakur Stevenson release made simple sense in Senior’s telling. Dana White said he released Shakur, and Sr backed the mechanics: if you are under contract, the man holding it has to release you — a music artist cannot release himself from Sony. It was mutual, but Dana had to agree; a billionaire with lawyers could have held Shakur and instead chose clean hands. Nothing wrong with parting when both sides see they cannot make the money they want together. And Shakur going his own way can work, the Mayweather way — but only with the right team and dancing partners. A fight with O’Shaquie Foster, in Sr’s blunt read, would be boring, and you cannot build a promotional company on a boring fight. Tank first, to build the brand and the money. Devin Haney second. Then the company is real.
Then Mill City asked the question this whole lightweight mess turns on: the WBO mandating Shakur against Raymond Muratalla. Senior did not blink. He wonders if it happens, and he would love to see it — because they are champions, and champions are supposed to fight each other. What is the purpose of becoming champion under four different bodies if the champions will not fight? Muratalla wanted Shakur at 135, both men moved up, and Muratalla worked his way up the rankings and earned the shot. That is what the ranking system exists for. Expect the champion to be a champion and fight the man who earned it, Sr said — not do what Tank did: drop a belt, run somewhere else to make a different fight, and still expect to be looked at as a champion. That ain’t the mindset of a champion. Asked who wins, Senior gave no pick: boxing is 90 percent mental, and whoever brings the best game plan and the right adjustments takes it. Neither man is invincible.
Our take: Schofield Sr has been saying pound-for-pound and position have to be earned, not handed out — this is the same sermon pointed at the top of the division. Haney cut out the middleman. Muratalla earned his line. The only man in this story still trying to pick his weight, pick his opponent and pick his terms is Shakur — and Senior just explained, in plain business language, why that road ends with nobody returning your calls.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
