What to Know
- The vacant WBA Lightweight championship is on the line as American Floyd Schofield faces Canadian Lucas Bahdi on the first major fight card in Chicago since 2019.
- Unified flyweight champion Ricardo Sandoval makes the first defense of his titles; U.S. Olympian Jahmal Harvey is scheduled for his first eight-round fight at lightweight.
- The card airs worldwide on DAZN Boxing with prelims starting at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, and the four fight main card at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
The last time championship boxing took place in Chicago in 2019, the Matchroom Boxing card featured Dmitry Bivol in the main event, Oleksandr Usyk in his first heavyweight fight in the co-main event, along with Charles Conwell, Arthur Biyarslanov, TJ Doheny, and Jessica McCaskill.
That’s a hard act to follow, but Floyd Schofield and Lucas Bahdi should deliver an all-action fight on Saturday at the Wintrust Arena in a joint promotion between Golden Boy Boxing and Most Valuable Promotions. They will compete for the WBA World Lightweight title vacated by Gervonta Davis.
Schofield and Bahdi Both Own Impressive KOs
Scholfield of Austin, Texas (19-0, 13 KOs) was last in the ring a year ago after a stunning first-round knockout win over Tevin Farmer. But he hasn’t been able to capitalize on the attention from that performance. He fell ill before a scheduled fight against Shakur Stevenson in Riyadh, and has dealt with personal issues along with his father and trainer Floyd Senior. It’s been 16 months since the Farmer victory.
“Prince” Lucas Bahdi of Niagara Falls, Ontario (20-0, 15 KOs) got the boxing world’s attention with the 2024 Knockout of the Year over prospect Ashton Sylve. He had lost the previous nine rounds, but proved one punch can change everything. Bahdi has since won three handily, all by decision, over three undefeated fighters. Will Schofield be number four?
Schofield stumbled on the way to the scale this morning, initially weighing in at 135.6 pounds. He was able to drop the extra half pound and hit the scale officially at the 135-pound limit. Bahdi made weight at 134 pounds. Both men will have to weigh in Saturday morning under the IBF’s rehydration clause limit. The teams apparently scrapped over the exact limitation. Here’s hoping nothing goes sideways Saturday morning.
Both men agreed during fight week a win would change their lives. The two have been respectful toward each other, but confident of their own skills and path to victory.
Bahdi’s Canadian fans have traveled to Chicago for the fight. He spent much of his early career taking fights in Mexico. Now he’s on the brink of what he’s worked for.
“I’m very proud to be Canadian. I wear that flag on my back when I enter the ring. Now here we are. We’re fighting for the world title, and I’m ready,” said Bahdi.
“He has his team and his family here. That’s what they’re supposed to do,” said Schofield. “It won’t be the first time somebody was chanting like that. But at the end of the day, they can’t fight for him. I think Lucas Bahdi’s a good fighter, and Saturday night he’s gonna have to show me what his team is cheering for.”
Will Ring Rust Slow Down the Action Saturday?
Safe to say the ring rust watch will be in full effect at the opening bell. Both men have plenty of pop in their hands, along with the speed and footwork to back it up. Both like to fight off the front foot. But Bahdi sometimes has trouble letting his hands go until the later rounds of a fight. He can’t afford to get behind on the cards against Schofield.
Inactivity isn’t anyone’s friend. Schofield was in training in early 2025 for a title fight against Shakur Stevenson when he withdrew due to illness, at one point claiming his food was poisoned. Bahdi and his team decided to wait and position themselves for a big-money fight or a world-title opportunity rather than take stay-busy tune-up fights.
So whether by design or circumstance, we will see quickly whether it’s affected Schofield’s and Bahdi’s performance. Let’s hope both heat up quickly and fight like fans know they can with aggressive power punching on display.
If both men give their best, Schofield has the edge and may decide to box Bahdi to a wide decision. But Bahdi proved he can pull a rabbit out of his hat against Sylve. It’s a worthy main event on a light boxing weekend.
Ricardo Sandoval, Jahmal Harvey Highlight Undercard
Unified WBA and WBC World Flyweight champion Ricardo “El Niño” Sandoval of Rialto, California (27-2, 18 KOs) will make the first defense of his unified titles against Sergio “Yoreme” Mendoza of Hermosillo, Mexico (27-1, 23 KOs). Sandoval was originally scheduled to face light flyweight unified champion Oscar Collazo of Puerto Rico moving up to challenge Sandoval. But Collazo suffered a rib injury during training.
Bravo to the matchmaking team for bringing in Mendoza, who should make it an entertaining fight to watch. Sandoval said his mother took her first plane flight to see her son fight in person.
THIS ANGLE! 😳
Jahmal Harvey remains undefeated and wins the Lightweight Bout by KO in the 2nd Round!
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#SerranoManzur | LIVE NOW | FREE on TikTok📲 https://t.co/z8THuNp1Lo— MVP – Most Valuable Promotions (@MostVpromotions) August 22, 2026
Most Valuable Promotions has a rising star in U.S. Olympian Jahmal Harvey of Oxon Hill, Maryland (4-0, 3 KOs), who returns after a sensational knockout win just six weeks ago. He will face Pedro Castro of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (9-1-1, 5 KOs). Harvey is quickly developing into a serious talent. “I bring the fight. I don’t believe in boring fights. I’m going to make a fight happen,” said Harvey.
Opening the main card, MVP’s talented super featherweight from Salinas, Puerto Rico, Jan Paul Rivera (16-0, 7 KOs) will face Abraham Valdez of Tecate, Mexico (14-2, 9 KOs).
Early Prelim Fight Lineup in Chicago
The preliminary card streams live on the Golden Boy YouTube channel with
Tristan “Sweet T” Kalkreuth of Las Vegas (17-1, 12 KOs) will face undefeated Ivan Rosado of San Juan, Puerto Rico (12-0, 9 KOs) in a 10-round cruiserweight contest.
In an eight-round super bantamweight match, Asa Stevens of Waianae, Hawaii (7-0-1, 2 KOs) will face hometown favorite Cristian Williams of Chicago (14-0, 8 KOs).
How about some heavyweight action? Undefeated U.S. Olympian Joshua “The Rocket” Edwards of Houston (7-0, 6 KOs) will face Craig Lewis of Detroit (15-9-1, 8 KOs) in a fight scheduled for eight rounds and in no way will it last that long.
Undefeated Grant Flores of Thermal, California (13-0, 9 KOs) will take on another hometown opponent, Mikey Dahlman of Chicago (19-2, 17 KOs) in a 10-round middleweight fight.
A member of the impressive women’s stable at MVP, flyweight contender Naomy Valle of San Jose, Costa Rico (15-1, 9 KOs) returns to the ring to face Sheyla Moreno from Mexico City (5-1-1, 1 KO) in an eight-round bout.
Oscar De La Hoya: Fight of the Year Candidate?
Oscar De La Hoya, Chairman and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, said he promised the Chicago fans he would be back one day.
“It’s a beautiful city. We love being here. A great fight town historically. We want to continue that tradition and make sure that boxing stays alive and that it is healthy here in Chicago.
Of the main event, De La Hoya has high hopes. “I think this matchup is going to be one for the ages. It’s going to be one of those fights where you’re going to know exactly where you were the night of the fight when it happened 10 years from now.
“I strongly feel it’s going to be one of those fight of the year candidates. Both guys are hungry. Both guys are undefeated. Somebody’s always got to go. When you have fights like that with talent like these guys, it’s a can’t-miss action type fight.”
Cheers to De La Hoya and to Jake Paul and Nakisa Badarian of MVP for cooperating to put this card together and take it to fans hungry to see world-class boxing. We hope to see more of this, and less of fight cards scheduled in war zones with travel advisories.
Gayle Falkenthal is an award-winning boxing journalist with more than four dozen awards for both written and video coverage from the Boxing Writers Association of America, Society of Professional Journalists, and San Diego Press Club, where she is the past president. She is the only woman journalist who is a full voting member of the BWAA. She is the Boxing Editor for NY Fights based in San Diego, California.
