By: Sean Crose

Julio Caesar Chavez. Roberto Duran. Boom Boom Mancini. Gervonta Davis. Pernell Whitaker. Vasyl Lomachenko. Each of these men has had the honor of being the WBA world lightweight champion. It’s quite an illustrious division, lightweight. And the WBA has had a premier title for the division for ages. Therefore it’s no small thing when a fighter gets a chance to fight for that WBA world lightweight title strap. Whatever it’s shortcomings, the World Boxing Association certainly has earned a place in the anals of the sport’s history. Taking possession of its world lightweight title is no small thing.

“This fight is for my pops,” says Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield (via Yahoo) who will be fighting for the WBA lightweight title Saturday night in Chicago. “At the end of the day, he sacrificed his whole life for me just to be in this position. So I got a lot to prove Saturday.” Boxing is indeed a family affair for the Schofields something that might add pressure to the younger Schofield as he enters the ring this weekend. Don’t expect the 19 and 0 Sheffield to be nervous though, this may be the fight of his life but he’s got a solid skill set to employ.

Not that this weekend’s opponent, Lucas Bahdi, is without a skill set himself. The undefeated 20 and oh Canadian has considerable experience of his own. “The top two guys in the division are going to war,” Bahdi says. “This is what it’s about, and I’m ready.” Indeed. To Bahdi, Saturday’s fight has to do with national pride.

“I’m very proud to be Canadian. I wear that flag on my back when I enter the ring. That was all part of the journey. Now here we are. We’re fighting for the world title, and I’m ready.” very proud to be Canadian.,” he says. “I wear that flag on my back when I enter the ring. That was all part of the journey. Now here we are. We’re fighting for the world title, and I’m ready.”

Sure enough, Schofield respects his Saturday opponent. “I think Lucas Bahdi is a good fighter. And Saturday night, he’s going to have to show me what his team is cheering for.” A title fight between two undefeated battlers is something that’s always exciting in and of itself.

This fight which will go down live on DAZN  makes sense because Schofield is frankly good television. Exceedingly fast and hard-hitting he’s the kind of exciting fighter that can bring in fans. Bahdi is certainly worthy of respect but there’s a reason that Schofield is drawing the attention leading into this weekend’s fight. It’s not that Bahdi doesn’t stand a chance, it’s simply that a win over Schofield would make for a quite an upset. One of the great things about boxing however is that one never really does know. Year after year the upsets pile up on the records.

At just 24 years of age Schofield has close to a decade age difference between himself and his 32-year-old opponent. Still as George Foreman once proved many years ago age at times can be nothing but a number. The truth is in order to emerge victorious Schofield is going to have to bring his A game no matter how widely favored he may or may not be. Bahdi after all will unquestionably be bringing his A game in his attempt to bring the title up to Canada where he’ll no doubt get a hero’s welcome. It’s up to Schofield to not allow that to happen. Whether he will or won’t remains to be seen of course, but it’s a pretty safe bet Schofield has a plan in mind.