The World Boxing Association has formally upheld Floyd Schofield’s unanimous decision victory over Lucas Bahdi, officially maintaining the outcome of their high-stakes lightweight clash at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. The decision from boxing’s pioneer sanctioning organization confirms Schofield’s standing as the WBA World Lightweight Champion, a title he was awarded following the October 10 contest. The ruling brings a definitive conclusion to a detailed administrative review prompted by a formal protest filed on Bahdi’s behalf by Most Valuable Promotions.
The post-fight dispute was initiated under Rule C.25 of the WBA Championship Rules, which provides a structured legal framework for fighters and promotional outfits to challenge fight outcomes on the grounds of potential officiating errors, rule misapplications, or scoring discrepancies. Most Valuable Promotions filed the protest following the Chicago event, arguing that critical errors by the in-ring referee directly impacted the scoring of the bout and deprived Bahdi of a fair result. In response to the formal filing, the WBA Officials Committee launched a comprehensive evaluation of the contest to determine whether the referee’s performance influenced the final scorecards to a degree that would warrant altering the official result or mandating an immediate rematch.
To conduct a thorough and impartial assessment, the WBA Officials Committee assembled an extensive review apparatus consisting of seven international referees alongside an independent panel of judges. This specialized group was tasked with re-examining the video footage of the bout frame by frame, focusing specifically on four critical rounds where controversial actions occurred: the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh rounds. The primary objective of the review was to assess whether the in-ring referee properly interpreted key incidents—including potential knockdowns and stumbles—and to measure how any missed calls affected the overall scoring of the world championship bout.
The detailed evaluation revealed significant officiating oversights during two key rounds of the fight. After reviewing the sixth and ninth rounds, all seven international referees unanimously agreed that the in-ring referee had failed to call two legitimate knockdowns suffered by Schofield. The panel concluded that punches landed by Bahdi in both the sixth and ninth rounds directly caused Schofield to go down, requiring both instances to be officially ruled and scored as knockdowns. The unanimous consensus among the seven international officials confirmed that the referee made clear errors in judgment by permitting action to continue without administering standard mandatory counts or recognizing the knockdowns on the scorecards.
In addition to evaluating the sixth and ninth rounds, the WBA review panel meticulously examined the third round, which featured a contentious incident near the ropes involving Bahdi. The original in-ring official had ruled a knockdown against Bahdi during that sequence. Upon re-examination, the seven international referees were divided in their assessment of whether the call was correct. Ultimately, a 4-to-3 majority of the international referees supported the original referee’s on-site ruling, concluding that the physical evidence supported maintaining the knockdown against Bahdi. Deferring to the majority opinion of the panel, the WBA Officials Committee formally upheld the original third-round determination.
The committee also scrutinized an incident in the eleventh round when Schofield fell to the canvas, assessing whether the fall was brought on by a legal blow from Bahdi or an accidental collision of feet. Following a careful review of the visual evidence, the committee determined that Schofield’s fall in the eleventh round was the result of a stumble caused by stepping on Bahdi’s foot rather than the impact of a legal punch. Consequently, the panel ruled that the referee acted correctly in refusing to score the eleventh-round fall as a knockdown against Schofield, confirming that no scoring error occurred in that specific instance.
Having established the physical facts of the fight, the WBA Officials Committee proceeded to analyze the mathematical impact of the referee’s missed calls on the official outcome. To evaluate how the uncalled knockdowns affected the result, the committee conducted a formal revised scoring exercise. In this exercise, the committee adjusted the original ringside scorecards by retroactively awarding both the sixth and ninth rounds to Bahdi as 10-8 rounds, reflecting the two knockdowns that should have been recognized during the live action.
The findings of this re-scoring exercise proved decisive in the WBA’s final resolution of the protest. Even after retroactively penalizing Schofield and applying 10-8 scores in favor of Bahdi for both missed knockdowns, two of the three original ringside judges’ scorecards still showed Schofield winning the bout overall on points. The third original judge’s scorecard, when recalculated with the 10-8 round adjustments, resulted in a draw. Consequently, the retroactive adjustment of the original scorecards shifted the official verdict from a unanimous decision to a majority decision in favor of Schofield, preserving his victory overall rather than reversing the ultimate winner of the contest.
To ensure complete fairness, the WBA also submitted the bout to an independent panel of judges who had not officiated the original fight, requesting a fresh assessment of the action. This independent panel’s scoring evaluation similarly failed to establish a majority victory for Bahdi. While a portion of the independent judges maintained Schofield as the overall winner, and a single judge scored the fight in favor of the Canadian challenger, the majority of the independent panel scored the bout as a draw. Because neither the adjusted official scorecards nor the independent panel’s evaluations established a winning margin for Bahdi, the WBA concluded that the challenger had not proven he earned a victory in the ring.
In its official declaration, the WBA transparently addressed the administrative standards governing championship contests, acknowledging that the officiating errors identified during the review process were significant and fell below the rigorous standards expected in a world title fight. The sanctioning body confirmed that the failure to recognize two clear knockdowns represented a notable lapse in ring management. However, the organization reiterated that under established sanctioning body regulations, officiating irregularities only justify altering an official bout result if the corrected errors fundamentally alter the identity of the winner or demonstrate that the complaining party was wrongfully deprived of a victory.
Because the combined analysis of the original scorecards and the independent judging panel showed that Bahdi did not attain a majority victory even with all appropriate scoring adjustments applied, the WBA determined that there were insufficient grounds to overturn the official outcome. Consequently, the organization formally denied the request submitted by Most Valuable Promotions for an immediate mandatory rematch between Schofield and Bahdi, reaffirming Floyd Schofield’s status as the rightful WBA World Lightweight Champion.
While the outcome of the contest remains unchanged, the WBA announced administrative follow-up regarding the referee’s performance. The findings of the Officials Committee concerning the referee’s missed knockdown calls in the sixth and ninth rounds have been formally referred to the appropriate WBA administrative authorities for internal review. This administrative body will consider the referee’s performance in accordance with organization protocols to determine any appropriate measures regarding future officiating evaluations and fight assignments.
By concluding the protest proceedings in accordance with Rule C.25, the World Boxing Association has maintained the official result of the October 10 bout at Wintrust Arena. The organization’s final ruling officially acknowledges the officiating deficiencies that occurred during the fight while formally establishing that those errors did not alter the ultimate outcome of the championship contest, thereby closing the appeal and confirming Floyd Schofield’s position at the top of the WBA lightweight division.
