Alycia Baumgardner Is One Win Away From A Crowning Achievement

By Boxing News - 01/06/2023 - Comments

By Vince Dwriter: As the co-feature on the Amanda Serrano – Erika Cruz card, unified WBC, WBO, IBF super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner will attempt to add the final piece to her super featherweight strap collection when she faces Elhem Mekhaled (15-1, 3 KOs) on February 4th at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden live on DAZN.

Back in November 2021, Alycia Baumgardner won the WBC title by stopping the previously undefeated Terri Harper in the fourth round. Eleven months later, she traveled back to the UK to collect the WBO and IBF straps by way of split decision, as she defeated her arch-rival Mikaela Mayer.

Mayer became the second super featherweight champion to lose both her world title and undefeated record to Baumgardner. After tasting defeat for the first time in her pro career, Mikaela Mayer verbalized her desire for a rematch, but the new unified champion dismissed the notion of a second encounter because she had her sights set on pursuing another career goal.

After becoming a unified champion, Baumgardner immediately placed longtime WBA champion Hyun Mi Choi (20-0-1, 5 KOs) on her radar. She made it perfectly clear that she wanted to fight Choi for the chance to become undisputed.

Baumgardner was adamant about wanting a clash with Choi, and in November 2022, the WBA gave the unified champion what she was asking for. The sanctioning body ordered a fight between the two champions, and they gave their respective teams 30 days to negotiate and reach an agreement.

The fight for the undisputed super featherweight title was on, and then it was off, as weeks after the decision, the WBA champion Hyun Mi Choi filed for a medical exception declaring she was unavailable to face Baumgardner by the deadline the sanctioning body issued.

Due to her inability to participate in the undisputed bout at a specific time, Hyun Mi Choi was downgraded to a ‘Champion in Recess.’ As a result of the sanctioning body’s ruling, Alycia Baumgardner’s match with Elhem Mekhaled will be for the undisputed super featherweight world title.

In the sport of boxing, the elite standard has transitioned from world champion, to world champion in multiple divisions, to the current gold standard of undisputed. On Saturday night, February 4th, both unified champions Alycia Baumgardner and Amanda Serrano, will have the opportunity to become undisputed in their respective divisions.

Currently, in women’s boxing, five females reign supreme as undisputed champions. Super middleweight Franchon Crews-Dezurn, middleweight Claressa Shields, welterweight Jessica McCaskill, super lightweight Chantelle Cameron, and lightweight Katie Taylor all share the distinctive honor.

On the night of February 4th, the 28-year-old Alycia “The Bomb” Baumgardner (13-1, 7 KOs) will receive a chance to have a career-defining moment if she’s able to conquer her division by collecting the victory and elevating her status from unified to undisputed.