Let the record show who called who. In this Mill City Boxing interview, the host opens by asking Schofield Sr. — the WBA lightweight champion’s father and trainer, in the camp’s first interview since they became world champion, by the host’s introduction — whether there has been any word back from J Prince’s side about Abdullah Mason. Sr.’s answer starts with a correction: it was not their callout. Mason’s side did the calling out. The Schofields responded — they gave a date, they gave a location, and they left it there for the other side to negotiate. Since then, in his words, nothing is happening and nothing is moving. And he adds the history that makes the silence louder: the last time Mason’s side sent a contract, Schofield agreed to it — and they went elsewhere.
None of it changes the camp’s calendar. Sr. says they will fight at the end of February or early March to defend the title no matter who it is — the mandatory, Abdullah Mason, or, if Tank Davis comes back and wants to fight, Tank. Whoever steps up gets the defence. William Zepeda, meanwhile, is busy with his own mandatory, a Cuban the host describes as a tall southpaw knockout artist; Sr. hopes Schofield gets the winner and makes no pick, saying only that whoever’s game plan works wins the night. And Schofield-Zepeda itself is quiet for a business reason, in his telling: same side, and a promoter would rather hold two champions and two streams of income than one. The mega fight comes later — maybe at 140, a weight Sr. says his son is growing toward within a year or so anyway.
The door he slams hardest is the one behind them. Jake Paul’s side is pushing a Lucas Bahdi rematch, and Sr. does not entertain it for a second: they beat Bahdi already, you do not look backwards, Bahdi does not deserve a rematch, and the win was dominant — the claimed knockdowns were not knockdowns, he says he showed and proved it, and only the commentators made the fight sound close. His son was hurt once, regrouped, and that was the whole story. It is the same charge he levels at J Prince: marketing a fighter off the Schofield name is just the business, but marketing is not a merit badge.
Then he turns to the fight he watched from ringside, Foster vs Navarrete, and a trainer’s standards take over. Navarrete’s style, Sr. says, was primitive — no head movement, no feints, no footwork, no balance, no muscle tone — and the fight was, in his repeated word, boring. Foster should have been able to knock Navarrete out in the second round; asked about a twelfth-round stoppage, he says he thinks Foster could have forced one and immediately labels his own answer speculation. He congratulates Foster — he got his belts, and Sr. says he is proud of him — while saying he wants to see him fight somebody really good. Not everyone in Foster’s orbit this week was that measured, but Sr.’s wider point is about the fans: people pay two or three hundred dollars for a night out, and champions owe them championship preparation. Our take: this is the Schofield camp exactly as advertised. They answered the callout with a date and a place, they defend in February against whoever signs, and they are not recycling a man they already beat clearly. Stand on business, and the phone either rings or it tells on itself.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
