Fight Week’s 5 Fights to Watch This Week: October 5–11

Floyd Schofield and Lucas Bahdi put undefeated records on the line for lightweight gold, Osleys Iglesias defends his super middleweight crown, and Brendan Allen tries to stop Christian Leroy Duncan’s climb through the UFC rankings.

There are weekends when fight fans have to search through the schedule to find something worth watching. This is not one of them.

Boxing supplies the biggest championship stakes this week, with major cards Thursday night in Quebec City and Saturday in Chicago. The Chicago show alone gives fans two legitimate world-title fights, while one of boxing’s most dangerous punchers at 168 pounds puts his championship on the line north of the border.

MMA adds two very different events Saturday. The UFC returns to the Meta APEX in Las Vegas with an important middleweight main event, while PFL Africa heads to Casablanca for a card built around tournament semifinals and a heavyweight main event.

Here are Fight Week’s 5 Fights to Watch This Week.

1. Floyd Schofield vs. Lucas Bahdi

Boxing — Vacant WBA Lightweight World Championship
Saturday, October 10 — Wintrust Arena, Chicago
DAZN

This is exactly the type of fight boxing needs more often: two undefeated fighters reaching the point in their careers where somebody has to take a real risk.

Floyd “Kid Austin” Schofield enters at 19-0 with 13 knockouts, while Canada’s Lucas “Prince” Bahdi is 20-0 with 15 stoppages. They meet for the vacant WBA lightweight championship after former champion Gervonta Davis was moved to champion-in-recess status.

Schofield has been viewed as a potential star for several years. He has speed, athleticism and the confidence of a fighter who expects to eventually compete with the biggest names around 135 pounds. At 24, this is the opportunity that changes the conversation. He is no longer being asked whether he has world-championship potential. He is being asked to go win one.

Bahdi is a dangerous opponent for that transition. He is eight years older, unbeaten himself and has stopped three quarters of the opponents he has faced. He also enters knowing this may be the opportunity that defines his own career. He did not come to Chicago simply to test a prospect.

There is another reason this fight matters. Lightweight remains one of boxing’s glamour divisions, and the winner immediately gains access to much bigger possibilities. Schofield has already talked about fights at the top of the division if he wins, but all of those conversations disappear if he overlooks the man standing across from him Saturday night.

That combination — two unbeaten records, a vacant world championship and two fighters who cannot afford to treat this as another developmental fight — makes Schofield vs. Bahdi Fight Week’s No. 1 fight to watch.

2. Osleys Iglesias vs. Oliver Zaren

Boxing — IBF & IBO Super Middleweight World Championships
Thursday, October 8 — Théâtre Capitole, Quebec City, Canada
DAZN

If you have not been paying attention to Osleys Iglesias, Thursday night would be a good time to start.

The Cuban-born champion has quietly become one of the most destructive fighters in the super middleweight division. Iglesias enters at 15-0 with 14 knockouts and makes the first defense of the IBF championship he captured in April when Pavel Silyagin’s corner stopped the fight after eight rounds. He also holds the IBO title.

What makes Iglesias interesting is not simply the knockout percentage. It is how quickly he has begun moving from dangerous contender to fighter the rest of the division has to account for. At 168 pounds, one impressive championship defense can quickly lead to discussions about unification fights and the biggest names in the division.

Oliver Zaren enters with an unbeaten 19-0-1 record, making this another matchup where the challenger has never experienced a professional defeat. The Danish southpaw is not known for the same kind of overwhelming knockout power as Iglesias, but he brings size, skill and the confidence of someone who has spent his entire professional career finding ways to win.

That contrast gives the fight its intrigue. Iglesias will be looking to impose the physicality and power that has overwhelmed almost everyone he has faced. Zaren needs to make the champion think, force him to reset and prevent the fight from becoming another showcase for Iglesias’ offense.

Thursday’s entire Quebec City card is worth attention, with Wilkens Mathieu facing Vladimir Shishkin and several other notable prospects and contenders in action. But Iglesias is the centerpiece. If he delivers another destructive performance, the discussion around the best super middleweights in the world may need to include his name much more prominently.

3. Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan

MMA — UFC Middleweight Main Event
Saturday, October 10 — Meta APEX, Las Vegas
Paramount+

The UFC middleweight division continues to change quickly, and Saturday’s main event is another fight that could help determine who remains relevant near the top.

Brendan Allen enters ranked No. 4, while Christian Leroy Duncan is No. 10 heading into their five-round main event. Allen has won three consecutive UFC fights and owns victories over names including Reinier de Ridder, Marvin Vettori and Edmen Shahbazyan.

Allen has spent much of his UFC career in the uncomfortable role of being the established contender asked to fight dangerous opponents below him in the rankings. That continues here. A win keeps him firmly in the championship conversation. A loss allows another younger contender to leapfrog him.

Duncan is exactly the kind of fighter who can make that happen.

The English middleweight is 15-2 with 10 knockout victories and arrives after defeating veteran Jared Cannonier in July. Duncan’s athletic striking has always made him an intriguing prospect, but recent performances have begun turning that potential into something more substantial.

This fight should reveal whether Duncan is ready to move from rising contender to legitimate championship threat. Allen has seen almost every kind of fighter the division can offer, and his grappling remains a major test for anyone who wants to reach the top five.

Duncan will want space and rhythm. Allen will want to break that rhythm, close distance and force him to deal with the type of grappling exchanges that are difficult to replicate in training.

There is no championship belt attached to the UFC Vegas 122 main event, but there is something almost as valuable: a place near the front of the middleweight line.

4. Ricardo Sandoval vs. Sergio Mendoza

Boxing — WBA & WBC Flyweight World Championships
Saturday, October 10 — Wintrust Arena, Chicago
DAZN

The Schofield-Bahdi main event will get most of the attention in Chicago, but the co-feature may produce the best action on the card.

Unified flyweight champion Ricardo “El Niño” Sandoval enters at 27-2 with 18 knockouts and makes the first defense of his WBA and WBC championships against Mexico’s Sergio “Yoreme” Mendoza, who is 27-1 with 23 knockouts.

Those records immediately tell you what kind of fight this could become.

Mendoza has stopped 23 opponents in 27 victories. That kind of power is unusual at flyweight, where elite fights are often decided through volume, speed and technical exchanges over 12 rounds. Sandoval can fight at that pace, but he also has enough power of his own to make opponents pay when they become overly aggressive.

There is another storyline surrounding the champion. Sandoval had originally been scheduled to face Oscar Collazo before an injury changed those plans, and Mendoza stepped into the title opportunity. That means Sandoval had to adjust to a different opponent while preparing for his first defense as a unified champion.

Mendoza, meanwhile, has very little to lose. He enters with one defeat, a high knockout percentage and the chance to walk out of Chicago holding two world championships.

This is the type of co-main event that should not be treated as background programming before the headliner. With two aggressive fighters and three combined losses across 57 professional bouts, Sandoval-Mendoza has every chance to steal the show.

5. Abdoulaye Kane vs. Badr Medkouri

MMA — PFL Africa Heavyweight Main Event
Saturday, October 10 — Mohammed V Sports Complex, Casablanca, Morocco

One of the goals of Fight Week’s 5 Fights to Watch is to occasionally look beyond the most obvious UFC and major boxing cards.

That takes us to Casablanca.

PFL Africa holds its latest event Saturday at Mohammed V Sports Complex, with Senegal’s Abdoulaye Kane facing Badr Medkouri in the heavyweight main event. Kane enters at 5-2, while Medkouri brings a 9-3 record into the matchup.

The fight sits on top of a card that carries significance beyond the main event. PFL Africa is holding semifinal bouts across the bantamweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions, with tournament winners moving one victory away from a continental championship. The organization has billed the show as its biggest event yet in Morocco.

Kane and Medkouri bring the size expected from a heavyweight main event — Kane stands around 6-foot-5 and Medkouri around 6-foot-4 — but the real appeal is the setting. PFL has continued expanding its Africa series into markets that rarely receive major international MMA events, and Casablanca should provide a very different atmosphere from Saturday night’s UFC show inside the APEX.

The main event also gives the card a regional identity rather than simply importing names from elsewhere. For fans who want to see where the next wave of African MMA talent is developing, this event is worth paying attention to.

Fight Week’s Must-Watch Fight

Floyd Schofield vs. Lucas Bahdi gets the top spot this week because there is nowhere for either fighter to hide.

Both are undefeated. Both have knockout power. Neither has held a major world championship.

By the end of Saturday night, one of them should have a championship belt and a very different career.

Schofield has more mainstream upside and has been discussed as part of boxing’s next generation for several years. Bahdi has the opportunity to take all of that momentum for himself. That dynamic often produces better fights than matchups where one established champion enters as an overwhelming favorite.

Iglesias vs. Zaren is a close second because Iglesias may be on the verge of becoming one of boxing’s most dangerous champions. If his knockout run continues against another unbeaten opponent, bigger fights at super middleweight should become increasingly difficult to avoid.

And for MMA fans, Allen vs. Duncan is the fight most likely to influence the UFC rankings. Allen is trying to protect his place among the elite. Duncan is trying to take it.

Thursday night starts the week in Quebec City. Saturday takes us from Casablanca to Chicago to Las Vegas.

That is exactly what this feature is supposed to be about: five fights, different stages, and five reasons to keep watching.

Fight Week will be following the biggest boxing and MMA stories throughout the week.