Unbeaten junior welterweight prospect Lucas “Prince” Bahdi was losing every second of just about every single round in the biggest fight of his career on Saturday.
Two punches later, the fight was over.
Bahdi (17-0, 15 KOs) unleashed a leading candidate for knockout of the year when he rallied to brutally finish prized Most Valuable Promotions prospect Ashton “H2O” Sylve with a two-punch combo that sent the 20-year-old Jake Paul protege face first to the canvas and out cold. The 140-pound bout took place on the undercard of Paul’s pay-per-view bout against Mike Perry at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
After Sylve (11-1, 9 KOs) dominated the majority of the fight behind his speed and combinations, Bahdi caught the native of Long Beach, California, with a short right hand in Round 6. But Bahdi followed the punch up with an immediate lead right that appeared to have Sylve out on his feet.
It was the next punch, however, which was the most destructive. Bahdi completed the combination with a left hook to finish Sylve without the need for a count at 2:27 of the round.
“My coach told me, ‘Listen, it’s going to be tough at the beginning but you are going to get him,'” Bahdi said. “I believed every word he said and it came.”
Sylve was originally expected to fight unbeaten prospect Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) on this night until Paul’s original opponent, Mike Tyson, pulled out of the bout, causing Paul to switch gears and create an entirely new card from scratch. Now facing a new opponent, Sylve entered as more than a 3-to-1 betting favorite.
“[Sylve] is very twitchy and very quick,” Bahdi said. “I was trying to get to his body early on but I was a little hesitant for some reason. It was tough to get in quick on him. He is very fast and has good counter punches. It was very hard to touch him in the beginning.
“I knew it was going to come. I knew his head was there in the center all of the time.”
Bahdi was outlanded against Sylve by a wide margin of 101 to 38, according to CompuBox. Sylve also landed 46% of his power shots.
