A big investment is being made into the future of Floyd Schofield Jr.

The 21-year-old Austin-bred boxer offered a glimpse of what he had to offer in a blistering first-round knockout of Tijuana’s Ricardo Lopez. Four knockdowns produced the stoppage after just 111 seconds of ring action this past Saturday at Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

The bout was his sixth on a Golden Boy Promotions show, and the biggest stage thus far with Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20KOs) earning an eighth-round knockout of Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21KOs) in the main event. Schofield appeared on a Vergil Ortiz undercard last August in Fort Worth and signed with Golden Boy immediately thereafter.

It was the promoter who brought him to that stage, however, who laid down the team's expectations.

“You witnessed a first-round knockout tonight against a guy that was not supposed to get knocked out,” noted Cameron Davies, Schofield’s co-promoter and partner with Golden Boy in the young Texan’s promising career. “This was a star-studded crowd and I feel like a lot of them came out to watch Kid Austin and watch greatness.

“If you want to continue to watch that… look man, 135 is wide f------ open. Pardon my language. But you saw what Devin Haney did and what’s happening in the sport. Kid Austin is going to own this division.”

Davies referred to the recent decision made by Las Vegas’ Haney (30-0, 15KOs) to fully abdicate the lightweight throne. The move came ahead of his upcoming challenge of WBC junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis (29-1, 24KOs), whom he faces this Saturday on DAZN Pay-Per-View in his birth town of San Francisco, California.

Schofield is among a crop of talented lightweights waiting in the wings to make their mark on the division. He ended his 2023 campaign with four wins and is already linked to a potential showdown versus former IBF 130-pound titlist Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz for his first fight of the new year.

The vow made by the rising prospect on his rapid transition to contender status is to further wow the crowd with his next appearance and all others moving forward.

“I know I can do better than that,” insisted Schofield, quite the statement considering his four-knockdown performance in less than two minutes. “I trained really hard. That’s just a little bit of it. I can’t wait to show you guys.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox