Via Vince Dwriter: As co-feature on the card Amanda Serrano – Erika Cruz, WBC, WBO, IBF super featherweight champion unified Alycia Baumgardner will attempt to add the final piece to her featherweight super belt collection as she faces off with Elhem Mekhaled (15-1, 3 KOs) on February 4 at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden live on DAZN.
Back in November 2021, Alycia Baumgardner won the WBC belt by stopping the previously undefeated Terri Harper in the fourth round. Eleven months later, she returned to the UK to collect the WBO and IBF belts by split decision, when she defeated arch-rival Mikaela Mayer.
Mayer became the second super featherweight champion to lose both his world title and undefeated record to Baumgardner. After tasting defeat for the first time in her professional career, Mikaela Mayer expressed her desire to rematch, but the new unified champion dismissed the notion of a second encounter because she She has set her sights on pursuing another career goal.
After becoming the unified champion, Baumgardner immediately put longtime WBA champion Hyun Mi Choi (20-0-1, 5 KOs) in her sights. She made it clear that she wanted to fight Choi for a chance to become undisputed.
Baumgardner was adamant about clashing with Choi, and in November 2022, the WBA gave the unified champion what she asked for. The sanctioning body ordered a duel between the two champions and they gave their respective teams 30 days to negotiate and reach an agreement.
The battle for the undisputed super featherweight title was on, then it was over, when a few weeks after the decision, WBA champion Hyun Mi Choi filed for a medical exception claiming she couldn’t confront Baumgardner before the deadline set by the sanctioning agency.
Due to not being able to participate in the undisputed match at a specific time, Hyun Mi Choi was downgraded to ‘Champion at Halftime’. According to the decision of the sanctioning body, the match between Alycia Baumgardner and Elhem Mekhaled will be the undisputed super featherweight world title match.
In the sport of boxing, the elite standard has moved from world champion to world champion in multiple divisions, to the current undisputed gold standard. On Saturday night, February 4, both unified champions, Alycia Baumgardner and Amanda Serrano, will have the chance to be the undisputed in their respective divisions.
Currently, in women’s boxing, the five women reign supreme as the undisputed champions. Supermiddleweight Franchon Crews-Dezurn, middleweight Claressa Shields, middleweight Jessica McCaskill, ultralightweight Chantelle Cameron and lightweight Katie Taylor all share the special honor.
On the night of February 4, 28-year-old Alycia “The Bomb” Baumgardner (13-1, 7 KOs) will have the chance to have a career-defining moment if she can conquer her category by winning triumph and raise her status from unifying to undisputed.
