WBA Upholds Floyd Schofield’s Victory and Denies Lucas Bahdi’s Request for a Rematch – World Boxing Association

The World Boxing Association (WBA) has officially upheld Floyd Schofield’s unanimous decision victory over Lucas Bahdi, which took place on October 10 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

The American was crowned the pioneer organization’s World Lightweight Champion last month. The decision came following a review of the protest filed by Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) on behalf of Bahdi, pursuant to Rule C.25 of the WBA Championship Rules.

The WBA Officials Committee conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the bout, which included the participation of seven international referees and an independent panel of judges. The review focused primarily on the controversial actions in the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh rounds, as well as their potential impact on the official scorecards.

The review determined that the referee failed to call two legitimate knockdowns of Schofield, caused by Bahdi’s punches in the sixth and ninth rounds. All seven international referees unanimously agreed that both instances should have been ruled knockdowns.

Regarding the third round, opinions were divided over a knockdown of Bahdi near the ropes. Four of the seven referees supported the original official’s ruling, leading the Committee to uphold that determination. The Committee also concluded that Schofield’s fall in the eleventh round resulted from a stumble after stepping on his opponent’s foot, rather than from the impact of a legal punch. Therefore, it should not have been scored as a knockdown.

The Committee also reviewed the judges’ scorecards and conducted a revised scoring exercise, awarding the sixth and ninth rounds to Bahdi as 10-8 rounds in recognition of the knockdowns that were not called during the fight.

However, even after these adjustments, two of the three original scorecards still had Schofield winning, while the third resulted in a draw. An additional evaluation by an independent panel of judges also failed to establish a majority victory for Bahdi. Although some judges maintained Schofield as the winner and one favored the Canadian, the majority scored the bout a draw.

After reviewing all the evidence, the WBA determined that the identified officiating errors were significant and fell below the standards expected in a world championship bout. Nevertheless, the organization concluded that these irregularities did not provide sufficient grounds to overturn the official result.

Consequently, the organization upheld Floyd Schofield’s unanimous decision victory, confirming his status as WBA World Lightweight Champion, and denied the request for an immediate rematch submitted by MVP on behalf of Lucas Bahdi.

As part of the resolution, the findings regarding the referee’s performance will be referred to the appropriate WBA authorities for administrative review and consideration of any measures deemed appropriate concerning his performance and future assignments.

The WBA therefore maintains the official result of the bout, acknowledging the shortcomings identified during the review while establishing that they did not demonstrate that Lucas Bahdi had earned a victory or justify overturning the judges’ decision.