In two separate but related rulings, the WBA ordered a mandatory bout between its reigning lightweight champion Floyd Schofield and José Valenzuela and also denied a request for a rematch by Lucas Bahdi, who lost a controversial decision to Schofield when they fought for the vacant WBA title on October 10th in Chicago. Bahdi protested the referee's rulings concerning several knockdowns / slips. After reviewing the challenged calls, the WBA determined that there were "significant" officiating errors that fell below the standards expected in a world championship bout. Nevertheless, the WBA concluded that these irregularities did not provide sufficient grounds to overturn the official result.
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 count 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.
Consequently, the organization upheld Floyd Schofield’s unanimous decision victory, confirming his status as WBA lightweight champion, and denied the request for an immediate rematch submitted by MVP on behalf of 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.
As for Valenzuela, the WBA ruled Schofield must now fulfill his first mandatory title defense and Valenzuela, a former junuor welterweight title holder, is the mandatory challenger.
The representatives of Schofield and Valenzuela will have a thirty-day period to reach an agreement, extending through December 11th. If an agreement is not reached within the negotiation period, or either party expresses its unwillingness to negotiate or participate in the mandatory bout, the Championships Committee reserved the right to call for a purse bid.
