Baumgardner Sweeps Turhan to Win the IBF Lightweight Title

ARLINGTON

Alycia Baumgardner walked to the ring behind Kirk Franklin on Sunday night, up a weight class, in the champion's state, against a puncher who had never lost. Thirty minutes later she walked out with Elif Nur Turhan's IBF lightweight title, and there was nothing on the scorecards to argue about. All three judges scored it 100-90. Ten rounds, three cards, not one round for the defending champion.

This was Baumgardner's first fight at 135 pounds. She arrived as a three-belt champion at 130 — the WBA, IBF and WBO titles from her super featherweight run — and ranked No. 10 on The Ring's pound-for-pound list. Turhan, who won this belt last December, was the bigger fighter on the official measurements: 134.6 pounds to Baumgardner's 133.8 at the weigh-in, an inch taller, with a 69-inch reach against 66. None of it bought her a round.

The pattern set early and never broke. Turhan came forward behind looping power shots, trying to close distance and land the overhand. Baumgardner made her start those attacks from too far out, stepped clear, and caught her coming in — a crunching counter right in the second, stiff lefts that left the champion reacting to shots in front of the judges. In the third, straight combinations had Turhan hurt, and the round ended in confusion: referee Melva Santos cut the action short after mistaking the ten-second clapper for the bell. Baumgardner nearly had her stoppage anyway.

From there it was counters and composure. A left and a right staggered Turhan in the sixth. Turhan's best work came late, in the ninth and tenth, when she shortened her punches and landed clean uppercuts inside — and Baumgardner answered both times and closed the fight throwing and landing her heaviest volume of the night. The punch numbers matched the cards: according to CompuBox, Baumgardner landed 103 power punches to Turhan's 40, connecting at 51 percent against 13 percent, and Turhan averaged five landed punches a round.

"The skills pay the bills, baby," Baumgardner said afterward. "It takes a lot of work to get here. I just show up and do my job. There is no playing around. What's next is undisputed."

The record lines settle the size of it. Baumgardner moves to 19-1 with seven knockouts and a world title in a second division. Turhan falls to 14-1 with eight knockouts — the first loss of her career, in a fight where she kept coming for all ten rounds and still could not take a single round home.

The road she pointed at is already drawn. Caroline Dubois, the WBC and WBO lightweight champion, was ringside in Arlington and stepped forward to challenge the new champion after the decision. Dubois first faces WBA champion Stephanie Han on February 20 in El Paso, with the winner expected to meet Baumgardner for the undisputed lightweight championship in the spring. Baumgardner, who said she sparred more than 160 rounds in camp to prepare for three-minute rounds, has the IBF belt and the division's best recent performance. The rest of the belts now have to come through her.

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