NEW YORK – Alycia Baumgardner left no question in any way about the final result of this 130-pound title battle.
Baumgardner dropped Elhem Mekhaled 2 times all through the fourth round, hurt her terribly all through the seventh round and gained their 10-spherical title unification bout by unanimous choice at Madison Sq. Garden’s Hulu Theater. The 28-yr-aged Baumgardner became women’s boxing’s entirely unified junior light-weight champion by defeating France’s Mekhaled, whose toughness produced what was a one-sided fight on the scorecards entertaining.
Judges Robin Taylor (99-89), Eric Marlinski (99-89) and Ron Paolillo (98-90) all scored the bout for Baumgardner by significant margins.
Baumgardner (14-1, 7 KOs), of Bingham Farms, Michigan, retained her IBF, IBO, WBC and WBO 130-pound championships and received the WBA belt that was vacant prior to she defeated Mekhaled. In her former appearance, Baumgardner edged rival Mikaela Mayer (17-1, 5 KOs) by split selection in their 10-spherical championship unification battle Oct 15 at O2 Arena in London.
Mayer, who viewed Baumgardner defeat Mekhaled from a ringside seat, needs a rematch as quickly as feasible.
Paris’ Mekhaled (15-2, 3 KOs) has missing back again-to-back again bouts. Belgium’s Delfine Persoon (47-3, 19 KOs, 1 NC) beat her unanimous conclusion in the 10-round bout prior to she boxed Baumgardner.
When way down on the cards, Mekhaled never ever stopped making an attempt to acquire in the afterwards rounds.
Mekhaled caught Baumgardner with a suitable hand that made Baumgardner reset her feet a lot less than 40 seconds into the 10th spherical.
Just after using a whole lot of punishment in the very first eight rounds, Mekhaled experienced a solid showing in the ninth spherical, when she was the busier, more precise fighter. She out-landed Baumgardner in that round, but she didn’t have the energy to have an affect on the champion.
Mekhaled landed a suitable to Baumgardner’s head that designed Baumgardner go following her body with just underneath 30 seconds remaining in the eighth round. Baumgardner bullied Mekhaled into Baumgardner’s corner with these human body blows.
Baumgardner battered Mekhaled all all over the ring in the opening minute of the seventh spherical. A vicious, crisp combination by Baumgardner knocked Mekhaled into the ropes significantly less than 30 seconds into the seventh spherical.
Mekhaled weathered that difficulty, however, and produced it to the eighth spherical.
Baumgardner rocked Mekhaled with a remaining hook that linked with just above 1:05 to go in the fifth spherical.
Baumgardner blasted Mekhaled with a suitable hand with just underneath 1:15 on the clock in the fourth spherical, but Mekhaled took that shot effectively.
Baumgardner dropped Mekhaled twice through the third round.
She wobbled the challenger with a ideal hand and then landed a different suitable as she was falling to the canvas with just underneath 1:40 to go in the third round. Mekhaled answered Dali’s rely and tried out to battle out of the problems, but Baumgardner landed several energy punches and she went down once again, this time with 1:11 on the clock in the 3rd spherical.
Makhaled related with a correct hand with just about 20 seconds remaining in the next round. Baumgardner landed 3 ideal fingers and moved out of Makhaled’s punching range every time with just around a moment to go in the 2nd spherical.
Mekhaled landed a correct hand with just about 10 seconds to go in the initial spherical. Baumgardner switched between orthodox and southpaw stances all through the first spherical, nevertheless she did not land several punches.
Keith Idec is a senior author/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be arrived at on Twitter @Idecboxing.
