Caroline Dubois gave Alycia Baumgardner a compliment and a jab in the same breath. Appearing on Ariel Helwani’s show Tuesday, Dubois said Baumgardner handled Elif Nur Turhan the way she was supposed to. She also said Baumgardner looked scared the whole time.
“She did exactly what she was supposed to do... Credit where credit is due,” Dubois said, according to clips Helwani posted on X. Then came the turn: “I felt like she was absolutely bricking it... I think she was nervous at the task at hand. She was worried about getting knocked out. I think she’s worried about ruining that reputation.”
Dubois kept going. Her point was that a decision loss is survivable and a knockout follows you forever. “It’s one thing to get outboxed, it’s one thing to get beaten, but to get knocked out, to be stretched out of the ring? Oh my God, she will never be able to live it down.”
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The 2027 Ask
The bigger news is the timeline. Dubois told Helwani a fight with Baumgardner for every belt has to happen next year, and she framed it as a promise already made to her. “It has to happen. This is what’s been promised to me, and this is what the setup has been all about,” she said.
There’s a condition, and Dubois named it herself. She has Stephanie Han first. MiddleEasy, in a column published Monday, laid out Dubois’ plan for 2027 with Han at the top of the list, followed by a Baumgardner fight in London, and Dubois also discussed what she expects to be paid. On Helwani’s show she treated the Han fight as a formality: “When I beat Han, there is no excuse and there is no denial.”
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Then she pointed the finger. “I think the only one holding this fight back is herself... If this fight doesn’t happen after I beat Han, we all know who the culprit is.”
Baumgardner’s camp seems to be talking the same game, at least on paper. Jake Paul posted on X congratulating her on winning the IBF 135-pound belt Sunday night, adding “Road to Undisputed.” His post quoted Baumgardner’s own message: “For the ones who lack comprehension I’m fighting the winner for UNDISPUTED.”
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Sal’s Take
I’ve been doing this long enough to know the most dangerous thing a fighter can say is how things will go once she beats somebody she hasn’t beaten yet. Dubois is spending a lot of airtime on Baumgardner’s nerves while Stephanie Han sits right there on the schedule, and Han is the only opponent who can actually wreck the London plan. As for pinning Baumgardner as the culprit, Baumgardner already said publicly she’s fighting the winner, so Dubois is accusing her of ducking a fight she just volunteered for. That’s a great quote and a weak case. There are no lines posted on any of this yet, and nobody should be pricing an undisputed fight before the Han result exists. Beat Han first. Then the bricking talk becomes a sales pitch instead of a guess.
