Schofield-Bahdi will headline a Golden Boy and MVP co-promoted show. The main portion of DAZN’s undercard coverage is set to start at 8 p.m. ET from Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Either a new star will be crowned in Schofield (19-0, 13 KOs) or the improbable run of Bahdi (20-0, 15 KOs) will reach new heights as they battle for a belt previously held by Gervonta Davis.

“I hate trash talking, and I’m not really a trash talker, but I’ve been studying him nonstop, and there’s nothing that I see that he can bring to the table that I haven’t seen before,” Schofield told The Ring. “And that’s no offense Bahdi. He seems like a good fighter and a great dude, and it’s nothing personal, but I think my sparring partners are better than he is.

“But I do think that he possesses more than I’ve faced in the past when it comes to his patience, his will and power, because he could be down on the cards and still be in the fight. So, I definitely think those are the things that we have to look out for, but that’s with anybody. You can’t underestimate anybody’s power.”

Schofield, 24, showed off his superpowers last time out by starching former 130-pound titleholder Tevin Farmer inside of 80 seconds in June 2025. That statement performance cleansed the stench of Schofield’s saga of pulling out of a high-profile fight against Shakur Stevenson four months prior due to what was cited as a fight-week illness.

"With the Farmer fight, I came to the realization that I haven’t even scratched the surface of this sport yet,” Schofield said. “I was just happy and proud of myself that I was able to get a fighter like Farmer out of there so quickly. You can’t expect to have a performance like that every time, but that was nothing. I haven’t accomplished anything yet. I have to be hard on myself. Farmer was a true champion and a great fighter, but competition only gets harder from there.”

Bahdi is certainly used to upsetting prospects and is promising to do the same against Schofield. The 32-year-old Canadian burst onto the scene in July 2024 by blasting unbeaten upstart Ashton Sylve in a come-from-behind, Knockout of the Year contender.

His pulverizing performance landed Bahdi a promotional contract with Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions. He has since gone on to beat two more unbeatens in Armando Casamonica and Ryan James Racaza, as well as former 130-pound beltholder Roger Gutierrez in his last fight in August 2025.

“To starch Ashton the way that he did, you have to have power,” Schofield said. “Ashton is a great prospect, but he was kind of one-dimensional. It was just in your face, slipping shots, counters.”

Schofield, of Austin, Texas, is rated No. 1 by the WBA at 135 pounds; Bahdi is ranked second. The Ring has Schofield at No. 7 in the division and Bahdi eighth.

The winner will move into position to land a title unification fight against WBC champion William Zepeda or WBO titleholder Abdullah Mason. The IBF belt is vacant after former crownholder Raymond Muratalla vacated the title last month.

Schofield, an 8-1 favorite according to DraftKings, expects to beat Bahdi just as easily as bookmakers do.

“Bahdi is stationary,” Schofield. “He likes to keep that hand down and paws out. Statistics show that he gets hit quite a lot. I just don’t think he’ll be able to handle my speed, power, and versatility.

“I’m hard to impress. I just don’t see anything special about Bahdi. I think the best attribute he possesses is that power and patience. That’s pretty much it, but I bring a whole lot to the table, and on Saturday, everybody is going to see that.”

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan