Caroline Dubois did not exactly choose diplomacy after retaining her WBC and WBO lightweight world titles against Amelia Moore in Birmingham.
She called Alycia Baumgardner a coward.
Baumgardner had already described Dubois’ performance as “lacklustre”, the pair had confronted one another at ringside and there is now very little ambiguity about how they feel about each other.
Good.
Because Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner is exactly the sort of fight women’s boxing should be making.
Not in three years. Not after another six carefully selected opponents each. Not after promoters have spent so long attempting to manufacture a rivalry that everybody has forgotten why they wanted the fight in the first place.
The rivalry already exists.
The championship significance is already there.
Most importantly, both women appear to genuinely believe they are better than the other.
Boxing does not need to manufacture anything here.
It just needs to make the fight.
Caroline Dubois Has Done Her Part
Caroline Dubois retained her WBC and WBO lightweight titles with a comfortable unanimous decision victory over Amelia Moore, with the judges scoring it 99-90, 99-90 and 98-91.
It was not necessarily the spectacular statement performance Dubois might have wanted, particularly with Baumgardner sitting ringside.
But that hardly matters.
Dubois won convincingly, remained champion and moved on to the conversation that increasingly matters at lightweight.
Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner.
There is something I actually like about Dubois being willing to push for this fight so aggressively.
Boxing has become obsessed with protecting records, building brands and waiting for the mythical moment when a fight has reached its maximum commercial value.
Sometimes that works.
Far too often, it means supporters spend years talking about fights instead of actually watching them.
Dubois is 25 years old. She is a unified lightweight world champion and clearly believes she is ready for one of the biggest names available to her.
Then let her prove it.
Alycia Baumgardner Is Not Just Another Challenger
The reason Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner works is because Baumgardner brings something completely different from another mandatory challenger or routine title defence.
She brings credibility.
Baumgardner has already operated at the highest level, becoming undisputed super-featherweight champion and establishing herself as one of the most recognisable fighters in women’s boxing.
Now she is moving up.
On 8 November, Baumgardner is scheduled to challenge Elif Nur Turhan for the IBF lightweight world championship.
That fight obviously has to happen first, and Turhan should not be treated as though she is merely standing between Baumgardner and Dubois. She is an undefeated world champion and deserves considerably more respect than being reduced to a stepping stone in somebody else’s rivalry.
But if Baumgardner wins?
The argument for making Dubois against Baumgardner becomes almost impossible to ignore.
Dubois would have the WBC and WBO titles.
Baumgardner would have the IBF.
You would have two champions, a genuine personality clash and an opportunity to move considerably closer to establishing one dominant lightweight champion.
What exactly would boxing be waiting for?
The Rivalry Already Feels Genuine
There is a difference between promotion and manufactured hostility.
Boxing fans can usually tell which one they are watching.
We have all seen press conferences where two fighters suddenly start shouting at each other because somebody has apparently decided ticket sales require a table to be thrown over.
This does not feel like that.
Baumgardner clearly does not believe Dubois is currently on her level.
Dubois clearly resents that suggestion.
Baumgardner criticised her performance against Moore.
Dubois called her a coward.
They confronted one another at ringside.
You cannot ask for much more material to sell a fight.
More importantly, though, none of that should become bigger than the boxing itself.
That is where promoters sometimes get things backwards.
A rivalry does not become great because two fighters exchange insults for 18 months.
It becomes great because eventually they get into a ring and settle the argument.
Women’s Boxing Cannot Afford to Waste Its Best Rivalries
This is where I think women’s boxing has an opportunity to do something better than the men’s side of the sport.
We have become accustomed to major fights taking years to happen.
Promotional disputes get in the way. Broadcasters get in the way. Sanctioning bodies get in the way. Fighters protect unbeaten records. Promoters protect investments.
Eventually, a fight that everybody wanted at 25 happens at 30.
Sometimes it never happens at all.
Women’s boxing does not need to copy that model.
In fact, one of its biggest strengths has been the willingness of elite fighters to actually face one another.
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano did not build one of the defining rivalries in modern women’s boxing by spending years beating opponents everybody expected them to beat.
They fought each other.
Then they did it again.
And again.
Whatever anybody thinks about the individual results, those fights became part of the history of women’s boxing because the rivalry was allowed to exist where rivalries ultimately matter.
Inside the ring.
That should be the lesson.
Give Elite Women the Same Expectations as Elite Men
There is also a wider issue here.
I recently argued on CMBoxing that women’s world championship boxing should move towards three-minute rounds and 12-round championship fights:
My argument is ultimately about equality of expectation.
If we want the best female fighters to be viewed alongside the best male fighters, then boxing should increasingly give them the same opportunity to compete under equivalent championship conditions.
But that argument cannot stop at the length of the rounds.
It also has to apply to matchmaking.
We should expect the best women to fight the best women.
We should expect champions to pursue unifications.
We should expect rivalries to be resolved in the ring.
And we should criticise the sport when business decisions prevent those fights from happening, exactly as we would in men’s boxing.
Women’s boxing has already proved it can headline major arenas, produce genuine stars and create fights people will pay to watch.
The next stage is not asking whether women’s boxing belongs on the biggest stage.
It does.
The question is whether boxing is prepared to consistently give its best female fighters the biggest possible fights.
Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner Has Something at Stake
Belts are not everything in boxing.
Sometimes the obsession with collecting four different versions of a world championship actually creates more problems than it solves.
But in this case, the belts add something.
Dubois already owns two of the major lightweight titles.
If Baumgardner defeats Turhan and takes the IBF belt, Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner immediately becomes a major unification fight.
That gives the rivalry sporting legitimacy alongside the personal animosity.
And that matters.
Because the best rivalries usually have both.
You want personality.
You want genuine dislike.
You want contrasting styles.
But you also want consequences.
The winner should leave with more than bragging rights.
If Dubois and Baumgardner eventually meet with three lightweight world titles on the line, the winner would have a legitimate claim to being the dominant force in the division.
That is a fight worth making.
Dubois Also Needs This Kind of Test
There is another reason I want to see this fight.
We need to find out exactly how good Caroline Dubois is.
That is not criticism.
It is the question every emerging world champion eventually has to answer.
Dubois has talent, confidence, physicality and considerable ambition. She has already established herself as a unified champion.
But becoming champion and becoming one of the defining fighters of your generation are two completely different achievements.
You only make that transition by beating elite opposition.
Baumgardner would represent exactly that kind of test.
She has the experience Dubois is still accumulating. She has been through major championship fights. She knows what it feels like to carry expectations and she has already reached undisputed status in another division.
If Dubois beats her, we learn something significant.
If Baumgardner beats Dubois, we learn something equally significant.
That is precisely why the fight is interesting.
Neither woman should be able to walk into it knowing exactly what is going to happen.
Baumgardner Has Something to Prove Too
This should not be framed entirely as Caroline Dubois getting her opportunity against an established star.
Baumgardner has something to gain as well.
Moving from super-featherweight to lightweight and immediately pursuing another world championship is ambitious.
Beating Turhan would make her a two-weight world champion.
Beating Dubois after that would be something bigger again.
It would demonstrate that Baumgardner was not simply capable of moving into the division, but capable of taking control of it.
That is the kind of challenge established champions should want.
Legacy cannot simply be built by defending what you already have.
Eventually, you have to take risks.
First, Alycia Baumgardner Has to Beat Elif Nur Turhan
There is one important qualification to all of this.
Alycia Baumgardner does not currently hold a lightweight world title.
Elif Nur Turhan does.
And overlooking her would be exactly the sort of mistake boxing repeatedly makes when a more commercially attractive fight is waiting beyond the current one.
Turhan is not an administrative inconvenience standing between Dubois and Baumgardner.
She is the IBF lightweight world champion.
Baumgardner has to beat her.
If Turhan wins on 8 November, then the entire conversation changes — and perhaps Caroline Dubois vs Elif Nur Turhan becomes the obvious lightweight unification instead.
That is how boxing is supposed to work.
Results should determine what happens next.
Not promotional plans made months beforehand.
But if Baumgardner wins, there should be very few excuses left.
Don’t Spend Two Years Selling a Fight That Already Sells Itself
This is probably my biggest concern.
Boxing has a terrible habit of recognising that it has something good and immediately deciding the best thing to do is wait.
One more fight.
One more defence.
Build the audience.
Let the rivalry grow.
Make it bigger.
There is always a reason.
Eventually, somebody loses, somebody changes division, somebody gets injured or the moment simply passes.
Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner does not need that treatment.
If Baumgardner beats Turhan, make the fight.
You have two champions.
You have three world titles potentially available.
You have Britain against America.
You have an emerging 25-year-old champion against an established former undisputed champion.
You have two fighters who clearly do not need media training on how to insult each other.
And most importantly, you have a genuinely difficult fight to predict.
What more does boxing need?
Women’s Boxing Needs Fights, Not Promises
Women’s boxing has made enormous progress because fighters such as Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Claressa Shields and others have repeatedly demonstrated what happens when elite talent is given a proper platform.
The sport now has another generation coming through.
Caroline Dubois can become part of that.
Alycia Baumgardner already is.
But reputations ultimately have to be tested against each other.
That is why Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner feels important beyond the insults exchanged in Birmingham.
It represents a simple choice for women’s boxing.
Does it follow the worst habits of the wider sport, where the biggest fights are endlessly discussed, delayed and protected?
Or does it recognise when a rivalry is ready and make the bloody fight?
Assuming Baumgardner gets past Turhan in November, I know which option I want.
They do not need another year of interviews.
They do not need manufactured confrontations.
They do not need promoters telling us repeatedly that negotiations are “progressing”.
They need contracts.
And then they need a ring.
What Do You Think?
Is Caroline Dubois vs Alycia Baumgardner the fight women’s boxing should make next if Baumgardner defeats Elif Nur Turhan? Who wins if they finally share a ring?
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