FLOYD SCHOFIELD JR looks to enhance his reputation as a promising lightweight contender when he collides with Joseph Diaz Jr, a former super-featherweight world champion, on November 8.
It was announced just yesterday that the pair will square off at the Dickies Arena, Texas, featuring on the undercard of a Golden Boy Promotions show headlined by Vergil Ortiz Jr vs Erickson Lubin.
While Diaz, 34-8-1 (15 KOs), represents a solid opponent, it was reported last month that โKid Austinโ had initiated talks to face IBF champion Raymond Muratalla, only for their world title fight to ultimately fall by the wayside.
Yet despite that, Schofield, 19-0 (13 KOs), has nonetheless secured an enticing opportunity to not only elevate his career, but consolidate his position as the WBAโs number-one ranked contender at 135lbs.
The 23-year-old emerged as a leading challenger to the belt, which is currently held by Gervonta Davis, after blitzing former world champion Tevin Farmer inside a round.
His emphatic performance, which arrived in June, has also silenced many of his detractors, who mostly appeared after Schofield withdrew from his scheduled clash with WBC champion Shakur Stevenson in February.
As for Diaz, his career was almost hanging by a thread, it seemed, until he lost an enthralling battle against Regis Prograis last month.
During their encounter, the 32-year-old failed an eye test โ giving incorrect answers whenever the ringside doctor held up his fingers โ and, rather bizarrely, was enabled to resume his hellacious slugfest.
But despite that somewhat discouraging sign, suggesting that he is, indeed, creeping closer towards retirement, โJoJoโ is nonetheless expected to offer Schofield a solid yet no less winnable test.
Elsewhere on that card, unbeaten heavyweight prospect Joshua Edwards and Darius Fulghum, who comes off a defeat to super-middleweight contender Bektemir Melikuziev, will also return to action, albeit against predictably limited opposition.
