Two unbeaten lightweights, one vacant world title, and a combined professional record of 39-0. That is Saturday’s main event in Chicago, and it might be the most honest test either man has taken.
Floyd Schofield and Lucas Bahdi fight for the WBA lightweight championship at the Wintrust Arena on October 10, live on DAZN. Neither has ever lost. One of them leaves with a belt and the other with a first professional defeat, and there is no version of this fight where both men walk away intact.
A Title Nobody Was Defending
The belt used to sit around Gervonta Davis’s waist. It does not anymore. The WBA moved Davis to champion in recess after a prolonged spell of inactivity and legal trouble, then ordered its No. 1 and No. 2 contenders to sort the division out in the ring. Schofield is the No. 1. Bahdi is No. 2. That is how a fight like this gets made without a champion in it.
I wrote about the WBA’s habit of letting rankings rot while champions take voluntary defenses in my midweek notebook, and this is the other side of that coin: when the sanctioning body finally enforces its own rules, the result is a genuinely competitive title fight between two men who earned their ranking.
Floyd Schofield: The Kid Who Barely Fights
Schofield is 24, out of Austin, Texas, and 19-0 with 13 knockouts. He is also the strangest case in the division. He has boxed roughly 78 seconds in almost two years. His last outing was a first-round demolition of former 130-pound titleholder Tevin Farmer in June 2025, and before that he pulled out of a high-profile fight with Shakur Stevenson on fight week.
The inactivity cuts both ways. A fighter who has not been hit in eighteen months has fresh legs and a full tank, but he also has no read on live fire. Schofield’s tools are real, though: hand speed that borders on unfair, sharp footwork, and a left hand he can place while moving in either direction. He is ranked No. 1 by the WBA and No. 7 by The Ring at 135 pounds.
He has not been shy about the matchup, either. “I’ve been studying him nonstop, and there’s nothing that I see that he can bring to the table that I haven’t seen before,” he told The Ring. “I think my sparring partners are better than he is.” He did concede one thing: Bahdi’s patience and power make him dangerous even when he is losing rounds on the cards.
Lucas Bahdi: Patience and a Right Hand
Bahdi is 32, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, and 20-0 with 15 knockouts, a 75 percent finishing rate that is higher than Schofield’s. He arrived on the world stage in July 2024 by getting comprehensively outboxed by Ashton Sylve and then ending the fight with one punch, a comeback knockout that became a Knockout of the Year contender and earned him a contract with Jake Paul’s MVP.
He has since beaten Armando Casamonica, Ryan James Racaza, and former titleholder Roger Gutierrez. What he is not is fast. Bahdi fights behind a high guard with his lead hand low, walks forward, and relies on reading the fight rather than winning the athletic contest. Against a boxer with Schofield’s speed, that is a difficult style to make work.
The Style Matchup
Bahdi wants a mid-range brawl where his size and power can wear a smaller, quicker man down. Schofield wants angles, in-and-out movement, and to make Bahdi pay for every step forward.
Schofield’s own scouting report is blunt: “Bahdi is stationary. He likes to keep that hand down and paws out. Statistics show that he gets hit quite a lot.” That is not just trash talk. Bahdi has been caught cleanly by lesser boxers than Schofield, and every one of those moments came because he was standing in front of someone.
The counter-argument is timing. Speed is the first thing to go when a fighter has been inactive, and Schofield has been very inactive. If Bahdi survives the opening three rounds, lands something meaningful to the body, and drags Schofield into the fourth quarter, the fight changes shape. Bahdi has never been stopped. Schofield has boxed only 78 professional rounds across 19 fights, fewer than Bahdi’s 92, which tells you he has spent his career ending nights early. Both of those facts matter.
Co-Feature: Sandoval Gets a New Opponent
The chief support is another world title fight, and it changed late. Ricardo Sandoval (27-2, 18 KOs) defends his unified WBA and WBC flyweight titles against Sergio Mendoza (27-1, 23 KOs) of Hermosillo, Mexico, after original opponent Oscar Collazo withdrew with a rib injury in training.
Mendoza is not a soft touch. He is bigger than Collazo, he has 23 knockouts on his record, and he will be making his United States debut with nothing to lose. Sandoval was preparing for a small, elite technician jumping two weight classes; now he is preparing for a naturally larger puncher on short notice. That is a real change in problem.
The Filipino Corner: Jayson Mama Gets His Regional Shot
Same night, different city, and this one matters more to me. Jayson Mama of General Santos City fights unbeaten American Dominique Crowder (19-0, 11 KOs) for the WBA/NABA USA bantamweight title at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, part of the Heart of America Pro-Am Invitational. It is October 10 in the States, which means Sunday morning back home.
Mama is 21-4-1 with 10 knockouts and a former world title challenger, coming off a technical knockout loss to Angel Ayala Lardizabal in Mexico City in May. This is a crossroads fight. Win, and he has a regional belt and a reason for promoters to call again. Lose, and the bigger opportunities start drying up.
There is a nice bit of history here too: Crowder already owns a decision win over a Filipino, veteran Kenny Demecillo, back in 2023. He knows what Pinoy fighters bring. If you are Filipino like me, a Sanman Boxing Gym fighter carrying a regional title shot into an American’s hometown card is exactly the kind of night that never makes the highlight reels but decides careers. It has been a busy autumn for Pinoy boxing, from Suganob’s revenge over Nontshinga in Bohol to Eumir Marcial staying unbeaten in San Diego, and Mama’s title shot is the next link in that chain.
Around the Sport
Two heavyweight notes before Saturday. Jermall Charlo is out of his October 17 undercard bout with Kane Mazoudier after a training camp injury, with former WBA titlist Jose Armando Resendiz stepping in. And the main event that night remains Daniel Dubois defending the WBO heavyweight title against Fabio Wardley at the O2 in London, a rematch of the fight Dubois won by 11th-round stoppage in May. ESPN called that the best men’s fight of the first half of 2026, and with the Fury-Joshua superfight already booked for December, the heavyweight division finally has some direction.
My Prediction
I have gone back and forth on this one, and the inactivity is the reason. On pure ability, Schofield is the better fighter by a comfortable margin. He is faster, he is more versatile, and he has been in with better opposition. Bookmakers agree, listing him anywhere from a 1/9 favorite to -795 depending on the book.
But 78 seconds in two years is not nothing. Fighters lose their timing before they lose their legs, and Bahdi is precisely the kind of stubborn, heavy-handed opponent who punishes a man searching for his rhythm.
I still think Schofield wins. His speed will be too much early, and Bahdi’s low lead hand is an invitation to a straight left that Schofield throws better than almost anyone at 135. I will take Schofield by unanimous decision, with one uncomfortable round in the middle where Bahdi lands something that makes the arena go quiet.
The Bottom Line
Whoever wins gets a unification path against WBC champion William Zepeda or WBO titleholder Abdullah Mason, with the IBF belt sitting vacant after Raymond Muratalla vacated it. Zepeda has looked like the class of the division since taking the WBC crown in August, and a Schofield-Zepeda fight in 2027 would be the fastest route to an undisputed champion at 135.
Chicago gets a vacant title fight between two undefeated lightweights, Kansas City gets a Filipino bantamweight chasing a regional belt, and next week London gets a heavyweight rematch. For a weekend without a superfight on it, that is a pretty good weekend of boxing.