Golden Boy Promotions has unveiled a truly rancid co-feature for Vergil Ortiz Jr’s November 8th showdown against Erickson Lubin, pitting top lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield against Joseph Diaz Jr.
Schofield’s (19-0, 13 KO) roller-coaster year has seen him miss out on a shot at Shakur Stevenson due to a last-minute illness, demolish veteran Tevin Farmer in June, then initiate negotiations for a potential title shot against IBF titlist Raymond Muratalla. That last one appears to have fallen through,
leaving GBP to cobble together a frankly unethical mismatch with Diaz (34-8-1, 15 KO).
“JoJo,” a former Olympian and super featherweight titlist plagued by a laundry list of extracurricular issues, is 2-7 in his last nine fights. He put on a decent scrap against the thoroughly fried Regis Prograis in August, but has dropped a number of decisions against opponents who could charitably be described as “mediocre.”
Honestly, I’d feel angry abut this if it wasn’t for all the awful stuff Diaz has done.
In an actually pretty decent matchup, Darrius Fulghum (14-1, 12 KO) will look to bounce back from a narrow loss to Bektemir Melikuziev against David Stevens (15-2, 10 KO), who came back from his own close shave against “Bek the Bully” to beat previously undefeated Petr Khamutov in June. Team USA Olympian Joshua Edwards (4-0, 4 KO) opens the main card against impeccably named Las Vegas club fighter Zeno Vooris (5-1, 5 KO).
