Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela believes Floyd Schofield’s camp is looking for a way around him, with the new WBA lightweight champion’s father calling for an Abdullah Mason unification in Texas early next year.

“Here we go .. they’re running the other way,” Valenzuela posted on X in response to the Mason callout.

Rayo has been seeking a shot at Schofield, but he may be out of luck if he expects the WBA to force the fight. His public request for the organization to intervene is not the same as an order requiring Schofield to face him.

Schofield Sr. offered Mason a January or February date during an interview with BandsNBoxing.

“If you want a fight, y’all can run it next,” he said. “Send the contract. Tell your bosses to send the contract to Golden Boy. Let’s make it happen then.”

He proposed San Antonio or Austin, Texas, adding: “Y’all already know it’s two belts on the line.”

That second belt gives Mason something Rayo cannot offer. Mason has also shown enough vulnerability to make him a target for Schofield’s camp. They may see a chance to collect the WBO title against a talented young champion whose defensive flaws offer openings.

Rayo falls into the “who needs him?” club: a former champion capable of spoiling plans without bringing another lightweight belt. Beating him would satisfy a challenger. Beating Mason would make Schofield a unified champion.

Schofield had enough trouble getting past Lucas Bahdi in his last fight to make another difficult assignment worth considering carefully. He won, but the performance hardly suggested he could take an opponent like Valenzuela lightly.

Rayo’s accusation puts that choice in public view. Whether it gets him any closer to a title shot depends on the WBA. If the organization approves a Mason unification, calling Schofield out may be all Valenzuela can do while the two champions pursue each other.

Frank Warren still views Daniel Dubois against Fabio Wardley as a 50-50 fight heading into Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London. Even though Dubois won their violent clash in May, Wardley dropped him in the first and third rounds, proving his power can alter the course of the bout instantly.

Dubois weathered that storm to secure the stoppage, yet those early visits to the canvas give Wardley massive confidence that he can flip the script. The real challenge for Wardley will be finishing the job if he gets Dubois in trouble again.

“I just feel that either of them can win. I think it’s still an even-money fight,” Warren told talkSPORT. “Daniel will go as favorite because he’s probably … got more experience as amateur as well as pro.”

Surviving clean bombs once does not guarantee Dubois can take them a second time. At the same time, reckless aggression could cost either man dearly.

“You’ve got to remember he called for this rematch,” Warren said of Wardley. “It was a brutal fight in May, and here we are now, and it’s on, and he believes that he can win it.”

Warren believes victory hinges on establishing the jab instead of hunting for wild knockout blows right away. For Dubois, a sharp jab keeps Wardley on the outside and stops him from landing cold early.

“For me, the key to this fight is getting behind the jab,” Warren said. “Not looking to lead with big punches, to actually go out and try and … jab and then let your shots go.”

Both heavyweights know what to expect after their first battle. The winner will be the man who made the right adjustments and capitalizes on them first. Neither fighter is built to play it safe, which is why Warren expects another explosive finish before the final bell sounds. Dubois proved his resilience, Wardley proved his firepower, and both step into the ring knowing one clean shot can end it.

When promoters preach boxing fundamentals and patience for a high-profile rematch, they are usually trying to protect their fighters from another grueling brawl. The problem is that fans are paying for fireworks, not a tactical chess match.

“They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Warren said. “It’s who’s learned from the last fight and who can exploit what he’s learned.”

If Dubois and Wardley actually listen to Warren and spend 36 minutes trading cautious jabs from ring center, public reaction will be brutal. Paying premium pay-per-view prices on DAZN just to watch two sluggers neutralize each other behind the lead hand is the exact opposite of what made their May fight thrilling.

“I don’t think the fight’s going to go the distance, whatever happens.”

The thin undercard makes that risk even worse. Here, there is zero safety net. If the headliner devolves into a safety-first sparring session, the whole broadcast will disappoint, and the backlash from paying customers will land squarely on Warren.

Sebastian Fundora gave Ermal Hadribeaj an icy glare during Thursday’s final presser at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Tension spiked when Hadribeaj aimed an imaginary sniper rifle directly at the champion’s chin.

Fundora kept his cool. The towering titlist didn’t swat the hand away. He didn’t shove the challenger. He simply stared him down, leaving the theatrics entirely to the Albanian contender.

Many boxing fans dismiss Saturday’s DAZN broadcast as a total mismatch. They might be forgetting history. Brian Mendoza knocked Fundora out cold in 2023. Erickson Lubin battered him. Tim Tszyu landed heavy leather on him. Those past fights prove the champion absorbs massive punishment when his defense gets sloppy.

The height gap between the two southpaws is ridiculous. DAZN’s faceoff clip showed the eight-inch difference clearly. Hadribeaj stands five feet ten inches tall, forcing him to point his fake rifle skyward toward Fundora’s 6’6″ stature.

Landing real leather will prove vastly tougher than gesturing on stage. Hadribeaj has to slip past huge reaching punches. He must escape clean counters. Closing distance against the champion is tricky because Fundora actually loves trading in tight phone booths.

That exact habit offers Hadribeaj his clearest path toward an upset. Fundora constantly surrenders his height by planting his feet inside. Shorter opponents suddenly find themselves in prime position to connect clean shots.

Mendoza exploited that flaw with a brutal left hook. Hadribeaj hasn’t demonstrated that kind of world class power against elite fighters yet. Still, writing off the challenger ignores the defensive gaps Fundora regularly presents.

The champion stayed composed on stage. Bringing that same discipline into Saturday night keeps the challenger outside, preventing Hadribeaj from getting the messy close-quarters brawl he desperately craves.

Hadribeaj’s taunting is unlikely to get Fundora to fight with reckless anger. Fundora has been through heated build-ups before, taken real damage in wars with Lubin and Tszyu, and generally keeps an even temper outside the ring. At the presser, he watched the sniper pantomime without flinching or retaliating.

The interesting part is that Hadribeaj probably does not even need to make Fundora angry to get the fight he wants. Fundora naturally surrenders his eight-inch height advantage without any emotional prompting. His default setting is to march forward, plant his feet, and throw uppercuts and hooks in a phone booth.

He gives up range as a matter of style, not because his temper got the better of him. That was how Mendoza caught him, and that was how Tszyu landed punishing overhand rights before the cut changed the dynamic.

Hadribeaj’s hurdle is what happens when he actually gets inside. Fundora is lethal in close quarters, throwing sharp uppercuts that chew fighters up as they try to stay under his reach. If Hadribeaj spends energy looking for one theatrical, loaded-up counter shot against a guy who throws heavy volume in the pocket, he risks getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of punches coming back at him.