Alycia Baumgardner dominates Turhan to become Alycia Baumgardner dominates Elif Nur Turhan to become two-division champion
Michael Huezo
Host · Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — Elif Nur Turhan threw every punch in the opening round like it was her last. A few of them landed clean on Alycia Baumgardner, too. That was about as good as it got for the champion.
Baumgardner (19-1, 7 KOs) settled in after that and put on a clinic, cruising to a unanimous decision, 100-90 on all three scorecards, to win Turhan’s IBF women’s lightweight title at College Park Center on Sunday night. The win makes her a two-division world champion after moving up from 130 pounds, where she was undisputed, and it handed Turhan (14-1, 8 KOs) the first loss of her career.
Most Valuable Promotions
Baumgardner makes her way to the ring at College Park Center.
The early rounds were a fight. Turhan came forward with wild, looping power shots and the second round was pure action. By the third, Baumgardner had figured out what was working. She started going to the body and firing straight shots down the middle while Turhan’s looping punches kept missing.
The third round also ended in confusion, when the referee stepped between the fighters with 16 seconds left just as Baumgardner looked ready to unload.
From the fourth round on, it was all Baumgardner. She jabbed her way in, talked back to Turhan between punches, and had so much control that Turhan started walking into the jab just to avoid the right hook. Turhan kept trying to turn up the aggression, and in the fifth she pushed forward more, but Baumgardner was always a step ahead. In the sixth she slipped Turhan’s big swings and landed a clean overhand right, and it was hard to give a round to anything other than Baumgardner’s constant work.
The night was also messier than it should have been. The ten-second warning signal sounded almost exactly like the official bell instead of something distinct, like a wood block, so fighters kept thinking the round was over and the referee had to keep waving them back to work. It happened more than once, including in the seventh. None of it slowed Baumgardner down. Double jabs followed by right hands were landing all night, and in the ninth she started mixing in uppercuts to the body that visibly bothered Turhan while the crowd got louder and louder.
Most Valuable Promotions
Alycia Baumgardner lands a hard right hand on Elif Nur Turhan during their IBF lightweight title fight on Sunday in Arlington, Texas.
Turhan never stopped swinging and showed plenty of heart and a good chin, but she missed far more than she landed down the stretch. Baumgardner’s defense was sharp, and in the tenth she snapped Turhan’s head back with a right hand to close the show. Baumgardner had spent fight week calling Turhan a one-way fighter who was easy to hit, and she backed it up in the ring.
Most Valuable Promotions
Elif Nur Turhan and Alycia Baumgardner embrace after the final bell.
On the undercard, Ramla Ali won a split decision over Mikiah Kreps in a super bantamweight title fight.
In her in-ring interview, Baumgardner thanked the fans who came out to support women’s boxing. Asked if handing Turhan her first professional loss was satisfying, she said she knew Turhan would hit hard and wanted to feel it for herself. “And I liked it,” Baumgardner said. “I’m just thankful because it takes a lot of work to get here. And baby, I’m a two-time world champ.”
The celebration quickly turned into a callout. Caroline Dubois, standing just outside the ring, grabbed the mic and kept yelling, “Are we fighting, champ?!” over and over, barely letting Baumgardner get a word in.
Baumgardner has said she expects to fight the winner of Dubois and Stephanie Han for the undisputed lightweight crown, and Dubois has made it clear she wants the winner of this fight in 2027. After a performance like this one, that fight looks a lot closer.
