Alycia Baumgardner Victorious in Second Skirmish with Christina Linardatou to Gain Revenge and Remain Undisputed

Alycia Baumgardner had a lot to prove Saturday night in Detroit.

That she is a box office draw as a main eventer. That she could make the first successful defense of her undisputed super-featherweight title. And that she had come a long way in the five years since her first and only defeat to last evening’s challenger, Christina Linardatou. Far enough to finally get the opportunity to manifest the knowledge taken away from that humbling learning experience into the tools necessary to fashion a satisfying revenge victory.

As for Linardatou, who borrows her boxing nickname ‘Medusa’ from the mythology of her Greek heritage, she was primed and ready to put in a repeat performance and skyrocket to super stardom by turning Baumgardner to stone. 

Channeling the spirit of Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Linardatou wore a red baseball cap to Friday’s weigh-in with the word WAR written on it, just as Hagler had done before his 1985 rumble with the ‘Motor City Cobra’ Thomas Hearns. 

War was delivered as promised by both challenger and champion. While it may not have matched the savagery of Hagler/Hearns (few, if any, bouts have), their action-packed title fight at the Masonic Temple produced no shortage of thrills all its own, the second half specifically when things truly heated up.

Baumgardner came out bombing, letting her hands go in the opening round in a torrent of combinations, uppercuts, and body shots that elicited only one reaction from Linardatou–a smile. With a busy jab and a succession of straight right hands that were the bane of Baumgardner’s existence in their first fight, Linardatou dictated the flow of the next couple of frames as Alycia gave in to her ponderous tendency to take a round or two off following a particularly productive one. 

Round four began in much the same vein as Linardatou landed a clean right within the first few seconds and the champion waiting until less than sixty seconds remaining to engage in any meaningful way.

A short, sharp left hook from Linardatou early in the fifth turned Baumgardner’s head around. It called for a response from Baumgardner in the form of a left uppercut which set in motion the frantic pace that would continue more or less unabated throughout the rest of the fight. 

In the later going, contested largely at close quarters, it was Baumgardner’s turn to take a cue from Marvin Hagler by alternating between an orthodox and southpaw stance just like the lefthanded Marvelous One was famous for doing. This tactic proved effective for Baumgardner as it kept Linardatou guessing and somewhat off-balance, allowing Alycia to floor the accelerator and begin to do some damage.

The scorecards seemed to be a bit too wide in favor of Baumgardner across the board, as the judges ruled unanimously for her to retain her undisputed championship by questionable margins of 98-92 (x2) and 99-91 when Linardatou made it a much closer fight than these numbers would have you believe.   

Nevertheless, the question now is whether Baumgardner remains at 130 or chases after the legacy fights and big paydays against the likes of Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor, and Chantelle Cameron, all of whom are on her most wanted list. And, speaking of repeat or revenge fights, Mikaela Mayer, who was originally supposed to have gone up against Linardatou in April, is still talking about wanting to even the score with Baumgardner. 

For now, we will have to play a patient waiting game while ‘The Bomb’ weighs her options and decides on a direction in which to explode next.