Floyd Schofield Questions Abdullah Mason Chin Ahead of Unification Talk
Floyd Schofield does not buy the idea that Abdullah Mason has already proven his chin at lightweight.
The unbeaten WBA title challenger told Fight Hub TV that his father is skeptical of Mason’s durability for a reason. Schofield pointed to the night a smaller puncher put the Cleveland southpaw on the floor twice.
“Just cause we seen, I mean, that 126 pounder who put him down,” Schofield said. “I mean, you can’t really say you got a chin if you get put down by one 126 pounder twice.”
That night was November 8, 2024, in Norfolk. Yohan Vasquez dropped Mason twice in the first round before Mason stopped him in the second. Schofield used that tape as the starting point, not as a full verdict on Mason’s career.
He still called Mason a good young fighter. The issue, in his view, is timing.
“I think Mason is a great young fighter, you know, but I just think he’s just now going through adversity,” Schofield said.
He walked that back a step and listed the hard nights Mason has already had. “Like I said, I can’t say he hasn’t been through adversity. You know, he’s got dropped. That fight with Sam Noakes was kind of hard, and then the fight with Albert Bell, he had to pull through.”
Mason won the vacant WBO lightweight title against Noakes by unanimous decision in Riyadh on November 22, 2025. He kept the belt on July 4 in Cleveland when he stopped Bell in the 12th round after a close fight that ended with two late knockdowns.
Schofield still does not see those wins as proof Mason is ready to trade with a true puncher. “So I just don’t think, like, he ready to be rocking. I don’t think he’s ready to, like, begin and hit in his face with hard punches.”
His last cut was the simplest one. “We haven’t really seen him against a power puncher, so, yeah.”
That is an opinion from a rival camp, not a medical report. Mason got up both times against Vasquez and finished the fight. He also went 12 hard rounds with Noakes and found a late stoppage against Bell when the hometown title defense was slipping.
Schofield has his own date first. He meets Lucas Bahdi on October 10 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago for the WBA lightweight title on DAZN, promoted by Golden Boy.
The unification talk sits behind that. Schofield named William Zepeda as the first target if the belts line up.
“If I can’t get Zepeda first, I would gladly take Mason next to unify,” he said.
Zepeda holds the WBC title after beating Lamont Roach. Mason holds the WBO belt. A Schofield win in Chicago would put three 135-pound champions in the same conversation.
None of those fights are signed off this interview. Schofield is arguing order and style. He wants the pressure fighter with the volume and the body work before he takes the young champion who has already been dropped by a smaller man.
Mason’s side has called a Zepeda fight career-defining. Schofield is saying the same division still has a durability question that the Vasquez knockdowns did not close.
October 10 is the next official step. If Schofield gets through Bahdi, he has already said who he wants after that and why he thinks Mason’s chin is the part of the resume that still needs answering.
