MVP Challenges Schofield's WBA Title Win Over Bahdi, Demands Rematch Over 'Officiating Errors'

TL;DR

• Most Valuable Promotions has formally challenged Floyd Schofield's unanimous-decision win over Lucas Bahdi in their WBA lightweight title bout in Chicago on October 10, 2026.
• MVP claims Schofield was knocked down in rounds 3, 6 and 9, but the referee ruled none of them knockdowns — and submitted video evidence to the WBA requesting an immediate rematch.
• The scorecards were wide: 115-111, 116-110 and 119-108. MVP's own arithmetic raises questions, because three uncalled knockdowns alone would not erase an 11-point deficit on the widest card.
• Golden Boy Promotions and the WBA have not yet responded to the protest.

The protest

The dust had barely settled on the October 10 Chicago card when the first formal shot was fired — not by a fighter, but by a promoter's legal team. On Monday, October 19, Most Valuable Promotions, the promotional outfit behind Canadian contender Lucas Bahdi, announced it was challenging the decision that handed Floyd Schofield a unanimous points victory and the WBA lightweight crown.

"The video evidence demonstrates multiple significant officiating errors that directly impacted the outcome of the fight," MVP said in its statement. "Our review shows that had these knockdowns been properly ruled and scored, Lucas would have won the WBA lightweight world championship by majority decision."

The protest was accompanied by video footage and what MVP described as detailed documentation, formally submitted to the World Boxing Association. Alongside the complaint, MVP asked for one specific remedy: an immediate rematch.

What actually happened on October 10

To understand the protest, you have to go back to the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, where Schofield and Bahdi fought for the vacant WBA lightweight title. The American was a heavy favorite and boxed his way to a unanimous verdict, with the three judges turning in cards of 115-111, 116-110 and — the eye-catching one — 119-108.

The fight was not without incident. Three times during the bout — in the third, sixth and ninth rounds — Schofield ended up on the canvas after tangles with Bahdi. Each time the referee waved it off as incidental contact rather than a knockdown. In the moment, that judgment call barely registered: Schofield was clearly winning rounds, and the wide cards suggested the fight was never close.

That is precisely why MVP's protest feels jarring. The official narrative was a decisive title win. The Bahdi camp's narrative is that the third man in the ring quietly rewrote the scorecards by refusing to score knockdowns.

The uncomfortable math

Here is where the protest gets complicated — and where MVP's own public statement invites scrutiny.

In championship boxing, a knockdown converts a round the winner takes 10-9 into a 10-8 round. That is a one-point swing per knockdown on the official card. MVP points to three uncalled knockdowns, which would move three points off Schofield's side of every card: 115-111 becomes 112-111, 116-110 becomes 113-110, and 119-108 becomes 116-108.

All three would still be Schofield wins.

That is a problem for MVP's central claim that Bahdi "would have won the WBA lightweight world championship by majority decision." To close an 11-point gap on the widest card — as the independent boxing press was quick to note — would require far more than three missed knockdowns: it would need whole rounds re-scored in Bahdi's favor, which is a fundamentally different argument, and not one MVP has made publicly.

Nor did the promotion's release identify which specific incidents it considers knockdowns, or publish an adjusted round-by-round card showing how Bahdi lands on top. "We have submitted our findings to the WBA and requested an immediate rematch," the statement said — but the evidence presented to the public so far is assertion, not arithmetic.

None of this means the officiating was good. A referee missing three potential knockdowns in a world-title fight is a legitimate concern regardless of whether the final result would flip. It does mean the WBA will have to weigh two separate questions: were there real officiating errors, and do those errors actually change who won? A sanctioning body can order a rematch without changing the result, but overturning a unanimous decision nine days later is almost unheard of.

What happens next

The ball is now in the WBA's court, and its options are limited but not zero. It could dismiss the protest outright, uphold the result while noting the referee's performance, or — the outcome MVP is banking on — mandate an immediate rematch between Schofield and Bahdi.

Silence has been the response so far: neither Golden Boy Promotions, Schofield's promotional team, nor the WBA itself had answered MVP's challenge at the time of writing. That is standard in the first hours of a formal protest, not a verdict.

For Schofield, the situation is an irritating distraction from what should have been a coronation. He is the WBA lightweight champion, unbeaten, and the division has far more lucrative names available than a return bout with the man he just beat over twelve rounds. For Bahdi, it is a second chance at a championship he believes was taken from him — and for MVP, a signal to its fighters that it will spend money and capital fighting decisions, not just fights.

Rematch ordered or protest dismissed, one lesson stands out for every fighter watching: the third man in the ring can be as decisive as the three at ringside, and when his judgment is questioned, the paperwork can take longer than the fight.