Caroline Dubois wants Baumgardner at the O2 ahead of Stephanie Han unification
Dubois will be ringside in Dallas when Alycia Baumgardner challenges Elif Turhan for the IBF title, but the American wants a fight with the British champion to take place in Las Vegas rather than London.
Post by @SkySportsBoxing on X
Caroline Dubois will be ringside in Dallas, Texas, when Alycia Baumgardner moves up from super-featherweight to challenge Elif Turhan for the IBF title. The British fighter hopes to face the winner and wants that fight at the O2 Arena in London, while Baumgardner has said she would rather fight her in Las Vegas.
Dubois, the WBC and WBO lightweight world champion, has her own unification bout to come on 20 February against Stephanie Han, who holds the WBA belt. Dubois has moved from London to California for training.
She said she wanted to replicate the night in 2022 when Savannah Marshall and Claressa Shields sold out the O2 Arena, a card on which both she and Baumgardner fought. Baumgardner, now 32, beat Mikaela Mayer in the chief support that night. Dubois said she believed a fight between her and Baumgardner could also sell out the venue, and that bringing it back to South East London, where she grew up, would be genuinely awesome.
Baumgardner said she loved the UK and had always loved the fan base there, but would personally like the fight in Vegas. She described the city as the mecca of boxing and said she had yet to fight there.
The pair have history. Baumgardner watched Dubois's victory over Amelia Moore in August from the commentary box, and the two had a heated face-off afterwards. Baumgardner dismissed the exchange, saying it was nothing new and that Dubois needed someone like her to get attention.
Dubois said she had never seen Baumgardner or Turhan fight in person and was looking forward to hearing the punches up close. She said: “I’m excited. I’m going to be there ringside and calling out the winner, of course.”
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