Unified super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner (13-1 7 KOs) and former interim WBC champion Elhem Mekhaled (15-1 3 KOs) square off at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, February 4. A native of Fremont, Ohio and now fighting out of Detroit, Michigan faces Paris, France-born contender in the 10-round bout with an undisputed title on the line. The contest serves as the co-feature on the card headlined by Amanda Serrano vs Erika Cruz live stream on DAZN.
In her previous outing last October in London, Baumgardner took a split decision against Mikaela Mayer in the championship unification. In April 2022 in Manchester, she defeated Edith Soledad Matthysse by unanimous decision, after stopping Terri Harper in the fourth round to claim the WBC strap in November 2021 in Sheffield.
The 28-year-old brings to the ring her WBC, WBO and IBF titles. The WBA belt is vacant.
‘I’m going to really hurt her’
“Undisputed is one of those things that’s easy to say but hard to achieve,” Baumgardner said. “With hard work and dedication, you can do it, but it’s tough. You are facing the best of the best back-to-back, and that’s the journey that I am on. I am making my mark, leaving my footprint on the sport.
“I don’t care how she got the opportunity, but she’s in with a dog and I hope she knows that. I am ready to knock this girl out. I’m going to really hurt her; I have a lot of pent-up aggression and she’s going to know what it’s like to fight the best. It’s not personal, it’s my mentality and she will feel the power in both hands, and she’ll think, ‘damn, I am in with a beast’.
“If you fight me, you think you can beat me and are better than me. You don’t know me. You might see a smile on a pretty girl, but don’t get it twisted, I got the dog in me and the same hunger I had when I was eight and you cannot take anything away from me. I hustled to get here, and you aren’t taking it away from me.
“Elhem is hungry. She’s wanted the world title fight for a long time, and that’s great. I know my assignment though and I will put her down. Nothing changes that it’s her, it’s a challenge, she wants it, I want it.
“We only have two minutes, don’t give anything away and make a statement every round. I believe Elhem will come forward and I will be the sharper fighter and showing my experience, setting her up. She’s wild, her defense is a bit sloppy, so she’s going to take a punch, but can she take my punch? I don’t know, I have a different type of power, but we’ll see. It’s a KO, for sure, I can feel it. I visualize a lot and I am in the ring, I KO her, and my hand is raised, and I’ve got all the belts.”
‘I like it when someone thinks that they can beat me’
Talking about her fight against Mayer, Baumgardner said “It was awesome”. The bout was featured on an all-female card topped by Claressa Shields up against Savannah Marshall.
“A great build-up, I loved the animosity we had, I was fighting someone that I had been watching for a long time in the amateurs, and now as a pro I was in a unification with her said Baumgardner. “I know I won that fight, you don’t like it? Argue with the judges, they got it right.
“She is delusional and so salty. When you have everything and you are the star, and you lose it all on one night, and lose it to little ol’ AB, it hurts, stings. I just believe she got beat by one of the best fighters in the world.
“I’m the best in the world. No-one stops me but me. I took an early loss, brushed it off, learned from it and grew. I went to England as an underdog against Harper and Mayer and proved everyone wrong. I am here for a reason, I speak truth to power, and I know I will go down as one of the greatest female fighters of all time.
“The belts are cool but why am I really here? It’s because I like to fight. I like the battle. I like it when someone thinks that they can beat me. You can hit harder than me? OK take this. You hit me with a shot? Cool – boom, boom, here’s my shots. I like that. I love to prove to myself that ‘you can do anything AB, no-one can beat you but you’.
“I have a loss too – who cares? I picked myself up, moved forward and now look. I became world champion and beat ‘the best’ in Mayer and made it easy work. If we run it back again, I would really dog her, know that now. Now I know I have you, next time, your career might be finished, because you keep playing with me, and I don’t like that.”
In the main event, Amanda Serrano (43-2-1 30 KOs) and Erika Cruz (15-1 3 KOs) battle it out for an undisputed featherweight title. Also on the card, Richardson Hitchins (15-0, 7 KOs) defends his IBF North American super lightweight belt against fellow-unbeaten John Bauza (17-0, 7 KOs). As well, Skye Nicolson (5-0) meets Tania Alvarez (7-0 1 KO) for the WBC ‘Silver’ featherweight strap. Plus, Shadasia Green (11-0, 10 KOs) meets Elin Cederroos (8-1, 4 KOs) for the WBC ‘Silver’ super middleweight title.
In the UK and Australia, Serrano vs Cruz fight card airs live on Sunday, February 5.
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