This past weekend, Floyd Schofield, now 20-0 with 13 KOs, claimed the vacant WBA lightweight championship by defeating Lucas Bahdi (20-1, 15 KOs) via a 12-round unanimous decision at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
The official scorecards read 115-111, 116-110, and 119-108. While Schofield was generally viewed as the rightful winner, the 119-108 scorecard was widely criticised as being far too wide and not reflecting the actual competitiveness of the bout.
Both men suffered knockdowns. Bahdi was delivered a count in the third when the ropes held him up, and Schofield was dropped in the eleventh – Bahdi stepped on his foot, and it was likely the wrong call, but it perhaps made up for an instance in the ninth when the American’s knee appeared to touch the canvas.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV post-fight, Bahdi said that his best work was prevented by Schofield not engaging.
“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.”
Having said that, the 32-year-old had plenty of praise for ‘Kid Austin’, even if his power is “nothing special”.
“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?
“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.”
As Bahdi looks to bounce back next time out, Schofield has already made his targets clear – unifications. A bout against promotional stablemate and WBC champion William Zepeda would be of particular interest to fans.
