Razor Sharp: Alycia Baumgardner’s Open Workout Reveals Title Defense Readiness
Alycia Baumgardner stepped into her Dallas media workout looking sharp, clearly dialed in for her biggest fight to date. The undefeated super featherweight champion is set to defend her unified WBA, WBO, and IBF titles against Canada’s Leila Beaudoin on December 19 at Miami’s Kaseya Center, and she’s doing it under a format that breaks boxing barriers.
Alycia Baumgardner Open Workout
Baumgardner‘s bout serves as the co-main event of Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua on Netflix, billed as “Judgment Day.” The fight card features a stacked lineup of world title bouts, giving her the biggest platform of her career. But what makes this particular fight significant extends beyond the venue or the main event spotlight.
Baumgardner explicitly chose the 12 rounds, three-minute format, the same rules governing men’s championship bouts, over the traditional women’s format. She vacated her WBC title to make this statement, pushing for equality in how women’s boxing operates. She’s only the second woman in history, alongside Amanda Serrano, to defend a unified title under these equal conditions.
In the workout, Baumgardner emphasized this was no performance for cameras. She’s working with trainer Derrick James, who she brought into her camp earlier this year. Their partnership continues to evolve, she explained during media availability. The dynamic has improved over time through consistent collaboration, resulting in sharper defensive work and a tighter game plan heading into the Beaudoin fight.
Her opponent enters with a 13-1 record and holds the WBO International super featherweight title. The 29-year-old Canadian comes from a snowsports background before discovering boxing as cardio training, eventually transitioning fully to the sport. She captured her first world title in August 2024 by defeating Lizbeth Crespo at home in Quebec City, then successfully defended it against former WBC interim champion Elhem Mekhaled in June 2025.
Baumgardner, 31, owns a 16-1 record with seven knockouts, giving her a 44 percent knockout rate. Beaudoin has two knockouts across her record, yielding a 15 percent knockout rate. Baumgardner‘s experience also tips heavily in her favor, she’s logged 100 professional rounds to Beaudoin’s 88 and turned pro two years earlier.
Baumgardner frames this entire opportunity through her development narrative. She mentioned her late father, who introduced her to boxing at eight years old, and described the sport as therapy, an outlet she needs to process life outside the ring. This particular fight represents another chapter in building her legacy and pushing women’s boxing forward simultaneously.
The workout itself showed what’s come together under James. Baumgardner demonstrated clean combinations, sharp head movement, and controlled aggression across multiple rounds of pad work. She spoke about the 12-round format as an advantage, claiming it gives her space to showcase her full skillset and outlast opponents down the stretch. Confidence runs through her camp, though she’s not dismissive of Beaudoin, she specifically selected this opponent, viewing the challenge as one worth accepting.
