Schofield, Esparza, Diaz lead Stanionis vs Ortiz undercard

Floyd Schofield meets Haskell Rhodes, while Marlen Esparza fights Gabriela Alaniz in a flyweight unificaiton

Golden Boy Promotions announced today that top lightweight prospect Floyd Schofield will serve as the co-feature for Eimantas Stanionis vs Vergil Ortiz Jr on July 8th.

Schofield (14-0, 11 KO) kicked off his GBP tenure by smoking Daniel Rosas in 97 seconds last October and has stayed busy since, sweeping Alberto Mercado three months later and crushing Jesus Valentin Leon on the Davis-Garcia undercard two months back. It figures to be more of the same against Haskell Rhodes (28-4-1, 13 KO); the 35-year-old sports losses to Sergey Lipinets, Edner Cherry, Omar Douglas, and Jason Sosa. This will be just his second fight in nearly four years.

Also on tap is a rescheduled flyweight unification between WBA/WBC champ Marlen Esparza (13-1, 1 KO) and WBO titlist Gabriela Alaniz (14-0, 6 KO). The two were supposed to square off on April 29th, but had to reschedule when Argentina’s Alaniz ran into visa issues.

In the opener, Joseph Diaz Jr (32-4-1, 15 KO) tries to get his career back on track against TBA. “JoJo” is 1-3-1 in his last five and enters the ring on the heels of consecutive losses to Devin Haney (understandable), William Zepeda (understandable), and Mercito Gesta (alarming). It’ll be at lightweight, which seems like a bad idea at this point.

Eric Tudor (8-0, 6 KO), Tristan Kalkreuth (10-1, 7 KO), and Darius Fulghum (5-0, 5 KO) will be in action on the prelims.