By: Sean Crose
Undisputed featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner is looking to avenge her only loss, a decisive 2018 loss to Christina Linardatou. “I’m writing a book about who I am,” Baumgardner said on the eve of his rematch with Linardatou this weekend. “Winning on Saturday closes a chapter. People are saying, ‘Well, Christina is her only loss’. On YouTube there are only clips of the war, I’ve never watched the whole war. I remember when I was in the ring that night and her hand went up, I was like ‘damn, I lost my first fight’. But then I was like, ‘I’m not done, who cares?’”
Currently, Baumgardner is one of the biggest names in women’s boxing. And a Saturday night win at Detroit’s Masonic Temple will only improve her already impressive reputation. Furthermore, Baumgardner, does not necessarily view the loss of Linardatou as an entirely negative thing. “It’s essential to growth,” she said, “and I want people to realize what growth looks like; it’s bad, and it hurts. But there is light at the end of the tunnel and it tells a story.” Quite frankly, it’s a sane way to look at things, especially now, when the sport seems to be finally free of the ridiculous belief that losing is a reputation destroyer.
“I wanted to show people that losing is not a bad thing,” says Baumgardner. “At the time, I got to see what it would be like if I won because I saw her career; she became world champion then. And I thought ‘wow, that could be me’ but everything went back to normal, and I’m so glad everything went the way it was supposed to be now I can’t argue and fight her in his backyard. I kept thinking how the battle would turn out, it would be spectacular, it would give me the feeling that this is what I’ve been waiting for and I’m going to punish her.”
Finally, Baumgardner wants to make it clear to everyone – especially Linardatou – that she has grown from the boxer she used to be. “I wanted her to know that she was with a non-boxer she fought five years ago,” Baumgardner said. “I chose her. I could fight anyone, but I chose her. She’s hungry and she should be. She fought some great fighters, and she told herself she’d beaten me before, which motivated her, but she didn’t know. After the first fight, she came to me and said that you are the toughest fighter I have ever fought. If she thinks I hit hard, wait until she gets the job. You’re in there with a dog, and I’ll punish you.
