{"id":609580,"date":"2026-04-17T05:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609580\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:28:23","slug":"alycia-the-bomb-baumgardner-is-fighting-for-gender-equality-for-women-in-the-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609580\/","title":{"rendered":"Alycia \u2018The Bomb\u2019 Baumgardner is fighting for gender equality for women in the ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Alycia \u201cThe Bomb\u201d Baumgardner steps into the ring at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, she won\u2019t be fighting only South Korean boxer Bo Mi Re Shin for the women\u2019s super featherweight belt. <\/p>\n

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It will also be another round in Baumgardner\u2019s bout for gender equality as she pushes boxing to adopt the same rules for women\u2019s fighters that it does for men. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs you grow as an individual and a face and a game changer in the sport like boxing, you want to see how you\u2019re able to implement new changes, right?\u201d Baumgardner told NBC News ahead of Friday\u2019s showdown in New York City. \u201cThis is my chance to really showcase who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

A typical men\u2019s prizefight lasts 12 rounds, with each round lasting three minutes. For women, most fights are 10 rounds, with each round lasting two minutes. Baumgardner is pushing for women to fight the same amount of time for a few reasons. <\/p>\n

For one, she said, it benefits her as a boxer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think one minute doesn\u2019t change much, but it changes drastically when you are a fighter who has a set of skills that allows you to take your time and to set up a trap,\u201d she said. \u201cBoxing is about a sweet science, how you can set up a play. It\u2019s like chess. Me being able to fight three minutes has allowed me to slow everything down, set up what I want to set up and take my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the business. Self-promotion and boxing have always gone hand in hand. The boxers who are able to attract more eyeballs usually participate in bigger fights. Bigger fights can lead to bigger paydays, and Baumgardner doesn\u2019t want a perception of women\u2019s fights to limit her potential in the sport.<\/p>\n

One of the allies in Baumgardner\u2019s push is the promoter she\u2019s signed to: Most Valuable Promotions, the company founded by YouTuber-turned-manosphere influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul, who has been vocal about earning better pay for fighters in both boxing and MMA. <\/p>\n

Paul has also taken a keen interest in women\u2019s combat sports. MVP promoted the first women\u2019s fight to headline Madison Square Garden, when Katie Taylor squared off with Amanda Serrano in April 2022. Next month, MVP will put on its first MMA showcase, when Ronda Rousey returns to the sport in a superfight against Gina Carano.<\/p>\n

Baumgardner\u2019s bout with Shin is the first U.S. boxing match for MVP under a new deal it signed with ESPN. Baumgardner said part of the reason she signed with Paul is that MVP ist focused not only on her equality as a fighter, but also on her equality as a businesswoman. <\/p>\n

\u201cBoxing is a dog-eat-dog sport at the end of the day. They don\u2019t care about you,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to know that you have to take care of yourself first. And there\u2019s a way of doing it, and that\u2019s teaming with people who see you for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JakeAlycia Baumgardner punches Leila Beaudoin in their unified super featherweight world championship during Jake Paul v Anthony Joshua at Kaseya Center on Dec. 19, 2025 in Miami.Leonardo Fernandez \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated<\/a>, Paul compared his goal of building up women\u2019s boxing with the WNBA, which he said needed stars like Caitlin Clark to begin competing with the popularity of the NBA. Paul wants to speed up the process by putting on fights such as Friday\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in the long run that all of these women will want to work with MVP,\u201d Paul told SI. \u201cWe have the best distribution for women\u2019s fighting and the biggest platforms and the biggest paydays and the most amount of followers to promote these women, too.\u201d <\/p>\n

One of the ways Baumgardner can advance her business interests is to book bigger and bigger fights, which she is keenly aware of. Paul told SI he is pushing behind the scenes for Baumgardner to fight Serrano, who is the unified champion at featherweight, one weight class above Baumgardner.<\/p>\n

Baumgardner was also recently called out by Caroline Dubois, the unified lightweight champ, who asked for a fight with Baumgardner after she defeated Terri Harper this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say she hits hard,\u201d Dubois said after the Harper fight<\/a>. \u201cI know I hit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baumgardner said of Dubois\u2019 challenge: \u201cI\u2019m well aware of being called out, but I also am aware that I\u2019m in my division and you\u2019re in your division. The fact that you\u2019re calling me out as a 135 pounder and you\u2019re calling out a 130 just tells me that you\u2019re worried about the recognition and the attention and the clout off of my name.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI\u2019m not a charity fighter. I am a prizefighter. Put some skin in the game, build a r\u00e9sum\u00e9, have some more stock in your name so that the fight can be built and be bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

What much of Baumgardner\u2019s motivation comes down to is time and how much she values it and how much value can be added when she proves she can fight just as long as men. She\u2019ll get another chance to show how valuable she is at \u201cthe world\u2019s most famous arena\u201d on national television Friday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are told to be a certain way. They\u2019re put into a box,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you tell a woman she can\u2019t do anything, she proves why she can. And I think it\u2019s just a moment of self-belief and also, honestly, to prove a point. I can do this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Alycia \u201cThe Bomb\u201d Baumgardner steps into the ring at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, she won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-609580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}