Alycia Baumgardner’s homecoming will double as a revenge tour.
BoxingScene.com has realized that plans are in place for Baumgardner to defend her undisputed junior light-weight championship versus Christina Linardatou, the one fighter to hold a loss on her in any other case pristine document. The rematch shouldn’t be but finalized however stays the main plan to headline a July 15 DAZN present in Detroit, Michigan.
As beforehand reported by Boxing Scene and different retailers, a mentioned co-feature would pair Brooklyn’s unbeaten rising contender Richardson Hitchins—a 2016 Olympian for Haiti—versus Montana Love in a junior welterweight contest.
Boxing Scene has confirmed that Baumgardner (14-1, 7KOs) and Hitchins (16-0, 7KOs) will seem on the present, whether or not within the aforementioned fights or versus different authorised opponents. The location of Linardatou and Love, respectively, is fully depending on accepting the proposed matchups.
Linardatou (14-2, 6KOs) turned out there after she was medically declined to proceed with a deliberate April 15 bout versus former unified junior light-weight titlist Mikaela Mayer (18-1, 5KOs) in England. The combat fell aside simply previous to the weigh-in when the British Boxing Board of Management (BBBofC) wouldn’t approve Linardatou—a 35-year-old former two-time WBO 140-pound titlist from Athens, Greece— for a license as a consequence of a everlasting lens in her eye.
The identical lens was in place when Linardatou misplaced her WBO junior welterweight title to Irish famous person Katie Taylor (22-0, 6KOs), the undisputed light-weight champion who moved up for his or her November 2019 title combat in Manchester, however have since revised their medical coverage which was the trigger for her being turned away for this combat.
It left her out there to problem Baumgardner, if she desires the combat.
Baumgardner—a Fremont, Ohio native who lives and trains within the better Detroit space—has received eight in a row since a heartbreaking cut up choice defeat to Linardatou of their July 2018 non-title combat in Louisville, Kentucky. Baumgardner was in a position to revamp her total workforce, together with her signing with Marshall Kaufmann’s King’s Promotions. She has since emerged as one of many prime pound-for-pound fighters and the totally unified 130-pound queen.
Greater than three years after her lone defeat, Baumgardner claimed her first main title with a sensational fourth-round knockout of unbeaten WBC junior light-weight titlist Terri Harper in a November 2021 upset win in Sheffield, England. Three title defenses have adopted, together with a ten-round choice victory over Mayer of their lineal, WBC, IBF and WBO unification bout final October 15 in London.
The final piece of the puzzle was added in her most up-to-date combat. Baumgardner floored France’s Elhem Mekhaled within the third spherical of an eventual ten-round, unanimous choice so as to add the WBA belt to her assortment on February 4 at Madison Sq. Backyard’s Hulu Theater in New York Metropolis. The combat was her first within the U.S. since August 2021; the July 15 present will mark her first profession headliner and simply her second combat within the better Detroit space, having not fought within the space since her second professional bout in Dearborn, Michigan.
Linardatou has not fought since a six-round win final July after giving start. Her being pregnant resulted within the unceremonious finish to her second WBO junior welterweight title reign, having regained the belt in a February 2020 win over Prisca Vicot.
Baumgardner is among the many profitable future choices for Taylor, who returns house and to the junior welterweight division this weekend in a problem of undisputed 140-pound champ Chantelle Cameron. Baumgardner shall be ringside for the DAZN-headlining championship conflict this Saturday at 3Arena in Dublin, Eire.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
