The lightweight division has a new, undefeated force at its summit. This past weekend at the vibrant Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Floyd "Kid Austin" Schofield cemented his status as one of the sport’s most exciting young talents by capturing the vacant WBA lightweight championship. Schofield delivered a gritty, high-stakes performance to secure a hard-fought 12-round unanimous decision over the previously undefeated Lucas Bahdi, in a battle that tested the mettle, resilience, and tactical adaptability of both contenders from the opening bell to the final closing seconds.
With the victory, Schofield preserves his unblemished professional record, advancing to 20-0 with 13 knockouts, while Bahdi suffers the first defeat of his career, falling to 20-1 with 15 knockouts. The stakes were monumental, and the atmosphere inside the Chicago arena matched the gravity of the occasion, as two elite 135-pound contenders laid everything on the line for world championship glory.
However, while the victor was clear to the vast majority of observers inside the venue and watching around the globe, the official judges’ scorecards sparked immediate debate within the boxing community. The ringside officials turned in tallies of 115-111, 116-110, and a heavily scrutinized 119-108. While Schofield was widely viewed as the rightful winner of the tactical and physical encounter, the 119-108 scorecard drew sharp criticism from pundits, analysts, and fans alike. Many pointed out that a tally giving all but one round to the American did not accurately reflect the intense competitiveness, ebb and flow, and sheer drama of the 12-round affair.
The championship fight was characterized by dramatic momentum shifts, encapsulated by tense moments where both fighters found themselves tasting the canvas. The championship heart of both men was put to the ultimate test as the bout progressed into the later rounds. Bahdi found himself in trouble during the third round when a combination of Schofield’s pressure and the entanglement of the ropes resulted in an official count from the referee.
Not to be outdone, the drama escalated dramatically down the stretch. In the eleventh round, Schofield was sent tumbling to the canvas. Replays and ringside observation suggested that Bahdi had inadvertently stepped on Schofield’s foot, making the knockdown call look somewhat dubious upon closer inspection. Yet, boxing often balances itself out over the course of 36 minutes of combat. The referee’s call in the eleventh might have served as a retroactive equalizer for a controversial moment earlier in the fight during the ninth round, when the American contender’s knee had appeared to touch the canvas without drawing a knockdown ruling from the official in charge.
Following the conclusion of the grueling 12-round war, both fighters offered candid assessments of the tactical chess match that had just unfolded. Speaking to Fight Hub TV in his post-fight interview, Lucas Bahdi reflected on the frustration of trying to pin down a constantly moving target. The Canadian contender believed that his best offensive work was consistently stymied by Schofield’s mobility and reluctance to stand in the pocket for sustained exchanges.
"It was a good fight. He wouldn’t stop moving. I was trying to track him down. I was the aggressor all night long, but he was on his bike," Bahdi remarked candidly when breaking down the dynamics of the bout.
Despite the disappointment of falling short of the world title and tasting defeat for the first time in his professional career, the 32-year-old Bahdi extended a generous amount of praise toward the newly crowned champion. Even while offering a critique of Schofield’s raw punching power—which Bahdi bluntly described as "nothing special"—he was quick to acknowledge the American’s championship traits, speed, and warrior spirit.
"He was quick. His power was okay. It was nothing special, but he’s a great fighter, man. He’s a warrior. Every time I caught him with a nice shot, he came back firing. I hurt him a few times. He got me with some good shots, too, but I was mostly off balance when he was hitting me. It was just like barrage punches, right?" Bahdi explained.
The Canadian challenger also displayed exemplary sportsmanship, refusing to hide behind excuses despite a few lingering grievances regarding referee rulings and knockdown calls during the heat of the battle. He maintained a mature perspective on the outcome, recognizing that on this particular night, the opponent standing across the ring simply executed a better game plan.
"But yeah, I thought a couple times I knocked him down. They didn’t call it a knockdown. But hey, no excuses, man. No excuses. I had a great training camp. Everything went well, and he was the better man tonight," Bahdi concluded.
As Lucas Bahdi looks ahead to the future and plots his path back to championship contention, the newly crowned WBA lightweight titleholder is wasting no time mapping out his next moves in a stacked division. For Floyd Schofield, winning the vacant belt is merely the first major milestone in an ambitious career trajectory.
With the WBA strap now firmly wrapped around his waist, "Kid Austin" has made his future targets abundantly clear: unification bouts against the biggest names in the 135-pound weight class. Among the potential matchups that have already captured the imagination of boxing fans and promoters alike is a high-profile showdown against promotional stablemate and reigning WBC lightweight champion William Zepeda. A domestic unification clash between two explosive, undefeated forces within the same promotional stable would undoubtedly rank as one of the most anticipated fights in the sport, setting the stage for the next defining chapter in Schofield’s burgeoning career.
