- Dubois Eyes Third World Belt Before Potential Baumgardner Undisputed Showdown
Caroline Dubois is targeting a third lightweight world title before pursuing a potential undisputed championship showdown with Alycia Baumgardner, as the British fighter seeks to take control of one of the most compelling divisions in women’s boxing.
The 25-year-old currently holds the WBC and WBO lightweight titles and has identified WBA champion Stephanie Han as her next target, while Baumgardner prepares to move up to 135lb and challenge IBF champion Elif Nur Turhan.
If Dubois succeeds in taking Han’s WBA belt and later faces the winner of Baumgardner-Turhan, all four major lightweight titles could ultimately be at stake.
“I want to become undisputed and I want to be involved in relevant fights,” Dubois told Sky Sports. “To unify the division is my dream right now.”
Dubois said Han is the only other champion presently available to her and hopes a unification fight can be secured before the end of 2026 or early next year.
Such a victory would leave Dubois holding the WBC, WBO and WBA belts and needing only the IBF title to complete the undisputed championship.
“Hopefully we’ll be unified world champion by the end of this year or early next. One belt away from becoming undisputed,” she said.
The strategy gives Dubois a clear route through a lightweight division whose championship picture has begun to converge.
The WBO officially lists Dubois as its lightweight champion after she defeated Terri Harper by unanimous decision in April and subsequently retained the title against Amelia Moore in Birmingham on August 29. She also holds the WBC crown.
Her defence against Moore ended in another convincing unanimous decision, with judges scoring the contest 99-90, 99-90 and 98-91. But events immediately after the fight drew almost as much attention as the performance itself.
Baumgardner, who was ringside, confronted Dubois and the pair exchanged insults in a heated encounter that intensified speculation about a future meeting between two of the most prominent fighters around the division.
Their rivalry now has a championship route attached to it. Baumgardner is scheduled to step up from super-featherweight to challenge undefeated IBF lightweight champion Turhan at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, on November 8, with the bout airing in the UK in the early hours of November 9.
Dubois expects eventually to face the winner. “Elif Turhan, the champion, versus Alycia Baumgardner, the contender, is going to be an awesome fight. I want the winner,” she told Sky Sports.
But Dubois does not intend to sit inactive while waiting for the IBF title fight to be resolved.
The proposed Han bout would allow her to strengthen her championship position and potentially turn a subsequent meeting with the Baumgardner-Turhan winner into an undisputed contest rather than another conventional unification.
That scenario remains dependent on several results and negotiations.
Dubois must first secure and win a fight with Han, while Baumgardner has to overcome Turhan if the increasingly personal Dubois-Baumgardner rivalry is to become the undisputed showdown both camps have discussed.
The November contest also represents a significant test for Baumgardner.
She has established herself as one of the leading fighters in women’s boxing at super-featherweight, where the WBO lists her as champion, but moving to lightweight requires her to challenge an established 135lb titleholder in Turhan.
Baumgardner has previously dismissed suggestions that she is avoiding Dubois and described the Londoner as not yet being at her level.
Before Dubois’ latest defence, Baumgardner described her rival as a “puppy” while presenting herself as the division’s more experienced championship figure.
Dubois has responded by framing Baumgardner’s comments as evidence that the American feels threatened by her rise.
“She’s most definitely intimidated by me,” Dubois said, before describing Baumgardner as “threatened” and “jealous”. Those characterisations are Dubois’ assessment of her rival rather than established facts.
Despite the antagonism, Dubois openly wants Baumgardner to defeat Turhan.
“I hope she wins the fight,” she said, arguing that victory would create the opportunity for the pair to settle their rivalry directly in the ring.
That prospective fight would carry significantly greater commercial and sporting weight if every major lightweight championship were attached.
For Dubois, it would represent the culmination of a rapid rise through the professional ranks and a chance to establish herself as the division’s sole champion. For Baumgardner, victory over Turhan followed by Dubois would offer the possibility of replicating her championship success at a second weight.
Turhan is the reigning IBF champion rather than merely an obstacle in a future Baumgardner-Dubois storyline, while Han’s WBA title gives her a decisive role in determining whether Dubois can enter any subsequent undisputed contest holding three belts.
That makes the coming months as much about championship sequencing as rivalry.
Dubois’ immediate objective is straightforward: secure Han, add the WBA title to her WBC and WBO belts and then turn her attention towards whoever emerges with the IBF championship.
“The path has revealed itself to me,” Dubois said. “The path has become clear now.”
For all the verbal hostility surrounding Dubois and Baumgardner, the biggest fight between them will only reach its full significance if both continue winning.
If they do, a rivalry that began with call-outs and ringside confrontation could develop into something considerably larger — an undisputed lightweight championship fight with control of the entire 135lb division at stake.
