CHICAGO — Floyd Schofield III is a world champion at 24. The unbeaten lightweight from Austin, Texas, captured the vacant WBA lightweight belt Saturday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago with a unanimous decision over Canada's Lucas Bahdi, winning on scores of 116-110, 119-108 and 115-111 to improve to 20-0 and join Abdullah Mason and Golden Boy Promotions stablemate William Zepeda as titlists at 135 pounds.
Schofield scored a knockdown in the third round and was the more active, effective fighter throughout, though he had to survive an 11th-round knockdown by the 32-year-old Bahdi, who fell to 20-1. “Kind of feels like a dream. This is what I've been working on since I was 2-years-old – never played soccer, never played football ... I wanted to box,” Schofield said. “My dad has a world champion.” Bahdi credited his opponent's movement, saying, “He had quick feet. Every time I tried to set and swing, he was gone. I got him a couple times, but he's game, a warrior."
Schofield jumped into his punches early and flashed the rapid hand speed that produced a first-round knockout of former 130-pound champion Tevin Farmer in June 2025. Switching to southpaw and bouncing for position, he hurt Bahdi in the third with a pair of thundering right hands, then dropped him with a left hook to the head as Bahdi threw a heavy right, with Bahdi falling awkwardly into the ropes. Bahdi thought he had returned a knockdown later in the round with a right to the body, but the referee disagreed. A crushing left by Schofield in the fourth was answered by a rocking left from Bahdi, and a hard left in the sixth again tested Schofield's chin. Referee Benjamin Rodriguez did not rule a knockdown in the sixth when Bahdi's power shots sent Schofield to the canvas, and again in the ninth when a Bahdi right to the top of the head caused Schofield's right knee to touch the canvas.
Schofield hurt Bahdi with rights in the 10th as Bahdi's right eye reddened and swelled, prompting a doctor inspection before the 11th. Bahdi then recorded a knockdown in the 11th with a right to the head while stepping on Schofield's right foot — a call that compensated for the earlier missed knockdowns. Under firm orders from his father-trainer to box and avoid another knockdown, Schofield moved fluidly in the 12th to reach the final bell. “I wanted to beat his ass. He hit me with a shot,” Schofield said. “Switching southpaw worked seamlessly. Lucas is a power puncher. He's got pop, I was embarrassed a bit, but wanted to get it back." His father added, “He boxed, stuck to the gameplan. Honestly, I'm going to go in the room and cry. It was hard, but we made it. We're no longer homeless. I did my job as a dad."
Both fighters had been out of the ring for more than a year while awaiting the fallout from the stripping of former WBA lightweight champion Gervonta "Tank" Davis' belt for his involvement in a domestic-violence criminal case. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya said if Schofield is not obligated to face former WBA 140-pound champion Jose "Rayo" Valenzuela as a mandatory challenger, he will target a unification with Mexico's WBC champion Zepeda or WBO champion Mason while Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz nears a shot at the IBF belt later this year. “I thought he fought perfectly,” De La Hoya said. “We're excited to unify with anybody."