Caroline Dubois is getting on a plane. The WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine lightweight champion will fight WBA champion Stephanie Han on Saturday, February 20, at the Gecu Arena inside the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, with the unification bout airing live on Sky Sports. Most Valuable Promotions made it official on X on November 6, billing the card as MVPW-09, and MiddleEasy confirmed the date and the titles shortly after.
The records explain why this one matters. Dubois, who goes by “Sweet Caroline,” arrives at 14-0-1 with five knockouts. Han, “The Enforcer,” is 13-0 with three. Neither woman has lost as a pro, and both have won more on volume and decisions than on one-punch stoppages, which tells you something about the kind of fight this could be. Expect long rounds and very few gifts.
The location matters too. El Paso is Han’s hometown, and MVP framed the matchup around exactly that: the local champion defending her belt in front of her own people while the British titleholder crosses the Atlantic to try to take it. Dubois has the bigger collection of hardware. Han gets the crowd, the familiar dressing room, and the comfort of sleeping in her own time zone the week of the fight.
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Baumgardner is already talking
The announcement landed a few days after Alycia Baumgardner made Dubois a target. In clips Ariel Helwani posted on X on November 3, Baumgardner accused Dubois of calling her out for attention and questioned her nerve.
“Caroline obviously has no backbone, so she has to call me out in order to get some type of recognition,” Baumgardner said. She added that “Caroline didn’t want to bet on herself with the fight that was given.”
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She went after the technical side as well. “She’s not confident enough. I can tell she questions herself a lot,” Baumgardner said, later adding, “I run through Caroline. She gasses out.”
The heat has a business angle behind it. Helwani reported that Baumgardner confirmed discussions about the winner of her fight with Elif Nur Turhan facing the winner of Dubois vs. Han. So February 20 decides more than who leaves El Paso with the WBA belt. It may also decide who Baumgardner gets to say these things to in person.
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Quick take
I like Han more than the odds will probably suggest. A 13-0 fighter defending a world title at home is the most dangerous person in boxing to underestimate, and that goes double when the visitor has spent the week hearing a rival say she fades late. Dubois has the better résumé on paper and the extra belts to prove it, but the stamina question Baumgardner raised will get tested in the second half of a championship fight in front of a Texas crowd that wants its champion to keep her title. If Dubois is still sharp in Round 8, she wins and the Baumgardner fight becomes very real, very fast. If she isn’t, Han becomes the name everyone has to deal with in 2027.
