Baumgardner Tells Dubois: Win on Saturday and Our Fight Can Happen
Alycia Baumgardner has a message for Caroline Dubois: take care of business in Birmingham on Saturday, and the fight everyone wants can stay alive for 2027.
The American unified super-featherweight champion — a fighter who holds more than one of the sport's major belts at 130 pounds — is stepping up to the lightweight division (135 pounds) to face IBF champion Elif Nur Turhan in November. But she already has one eye on Dubois, and told BBC Sport that the 25-year-old Londoner needs to "do her part" and "step up" to make their clash happen (BBC Sport).
Dubois, the WBC and WBO lightweight champion, faces American Amelia Moore on Saturday, 29 August, at the BP Pulse LIVE Arena in Birmingham. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds and sits as the co-main event beneath Mikaela Mayer's light-middleweight unification contest against Chantelle Cameron (Sky Sports).
The two fighters have been circling each other for the better part of a year, trading barbs at news conferences and across social media. Dubois called the matchup "unavoidable, unmissable, and undeniable" in June, while also describing Baumgardner as "lost right now" (Sky Sports). Baumgardner fired back on TikTok Live in April, telling viewers she is "still levels above" Dubois after the Brit made references to performance-enhancing drugs (SI).
Baumgardner, 32, was at the BP Pulse Arena on Thursday for a separate news conference promoting her November bout with Turhan. Dubois was at the same venue promoting her own fight. The proximity was not lost on anyone.
The path to a 2027 showdown is straightforward on paper but fragile in practice. Baumgardner must beat Turhan — no small task against a reigning IBF champion — and Dubois must get past Moore on Saturday. Dubois brings an unbeaten professional record of 13 wins, 0 losses, and 1 draw, with 5 knockouts (Boxing Scene). Baumgardner improved to 18-1 (7 KOs) in April with a unanimous-decision win over Bo Mi Re Shin, retaining her unified titles (Yahoo Sports).
Back in February, Baumgardner suggested a fight with Dubois or Terri Harper would be a "lateral move" — a bout against an opponent at roughly the same level rather than a clear step up (Sky Sports Boxing, Facebook). Her tone has shifted since committing to the move up to lightweight, where Dubois already holds two of the four major belts.
For fans of women's boxing, the stakes are easy to grasp. Two champions, two belts each, a year of public bad blood, and now a shared calendar that could bring them into the same ring. Both just have to keep winning.
