What to Know
- Women’s boxing thrilled fans in Arlington, Texas and watching on ESPN at Most Valuable Promotions’ MVPW07 card on Sunday.
- Alycia Baumgardner took Elif Nur Turhan to the cleaners with three shutout scorecards in a dominating performance.
- Ramla Ali scored her biggest, while Irma Garcia and Skye Nicolson defended their titles.
In Sunday’s main event on the Most Valuable Promotions MVPW07 card, Alycia Baumgardner of Detroit stepped up and showed out in her first fight as a lightweight.
“The Bomb” thoroughly defused one of boxing’s hard-punching women and our 2025 Fighter of the Year, Elif Nur Turhan of Turkey. Turhan did not win a single round on any of the three scorecards against Baumgardner, a triple 100-90 shutout.
Baumgardner is now the IBF World Lightweight champion. It was the first loss for “The Golden Turkish Warrior” Turhan (14-1, 8 KOs) at the hands of Baumgardner (19-1, 7 KOs), who has never looked more in control.
“This was somebody that I was very humble to fight, and I needed this fight to keep me humble, to keep me hungry, and be the best fighter that I can be,” said Baumgardner.
Baumgardner and trainer Derrick James trained hard and put together the ideal game plan against Turhan. Turhan swings for the fences, relying on her power much like a male heavyweight who can lose every round but win the fight with a single punch. They recognized that Baumgardner could neutralize her with speed, with a stinging jab and straight power shots.
Baumgardner said she and James knew Turhan would come out swinging. “We knew that’s how she comes to fight. So it was all about staying composed and staying true to what I’m great at, and that’s keeping my hands up. That’s being skillful. The skills pay the bills, baby!”
Baumgardner landed more than half of her power punches thanks to her superior accuracy and counterpunching. She was well conditioned to fight three-minute rounds, saying she sparred more than 160 rounds in training camp.
It paid off: her punch output increased through the fight, and she threw and landed the most punches in the final round as Turhan faded. According to CompuBox, Turhan landed an average of just five punches per round. Baumgardner landed 43% of her punches thrown in combination to just 16% for Turhan.
“I was prepared for that fight, and so when I’m in there, I just think, man, I trained for this,” said Baumgardner. “This was supposed to be the fun part, and I definitely made it fun and made it exciting and entertaining, and I hope everybody was entertained tonight.”
Sitting ringside watching with great interest was WBC/WBO World Lightweight champion Caroline Dubois, who will face WBA World Lightweight champion Stephanie Han to unify the rest of the titles on February 20 in El Paso. Count on a fight for undisputed between the winner and Baumgardner in the spring.
Ramla Ali Wins First World Title
In by far the biggest win of her career in the co-main event, Somali-born Ramla Ali of London (12-2, 3 KOs) handed her longtime sparring partner Mikiah Kreps of Niagara Falls, New York (11-1, 3 KOs) her first loss in a hard-fought majority decision. Ali wins the vacant WBO and IBF super bantamweight world titles by majority decision.
Ali has been under the spotlight for her activism as Somalia’s first woman boxer, as an Olympic competitor, and as an advocate for women worldwide. Her many accomplishments outside boxing have at times outshone her athletic performances in the ring.
But on Sunday, she put on the performance of her career, battering the hard hitting Kreps and scoring a knockdown in the sixth round on the way to a solid decision victory.
Caught her with the hook 😳 What a knockdown from Ramla Ali 🔥 #MVPW07 https://t.co/hNPzbDfDPJ
— ESPN Ringside (@ESPNRingside) November 9, 2026
Ali said the won the fight for her father, who passed away in May. She said in the dressing room, her trainer reminded her to do it for him.
“That’s where those emotions came out at the end because I did it for my dad, who was watching me and keeping me safe, was keeping me and my opponent safe in the ring,” said Ali.. “I can’t put into words what this means to me and what this means to all of Somalia. You know, I’ve hopefully inspired so many young girls and boys out there to dream big, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
Successful MVP Debut for Nicolson
The delayed MVP debut of WBC World Super Bantamweight world champion and 2020 Olympian Skye Nicolson of Australia (16-1, 3 KOs) played out much as expected against Japan’s three-time, two-division world champion Miyo Yoshida of Japan, who is based in New York (19-7, 1 KO). Scores were 100-90. 99-91, and 98-92.
The 38-year-old veteran Yoshida came up from bantamweight to win a third division title, but she faced an opponent whose height and reach made her a difficult target. Nicolson says she feels stronger after moving up to 122 pounds after losing her title to Tiara Brown in 2025, and she kept Yoshida at the perfect distance to work without much threat.
Irma Garcia Becomes Unified Super Flyweight Champion
IBF World Super Flyweight and Ring Magazine champion Irma Garcia only seems to get better as she gets older. Garcia of Mexico (27-5-1, 6 KOs) took command with her ring generalship and footwork, shutting down WBA World Super Flyweight champion Nataly Delgado of Panama (21-8-2, 5 KOs) in a confident performance to become a unified world champion at age 45. Scores were 97-92 on all three cards.
Garcia learned at the post-fight news conference that she won the Performance of the Night award.
Garcia kept herself in position to land the better shots, leaving few opportunities for Delgado. She dropped Delgado late in round six and came close to a second knockdown with a serious left hook just seconds before the end of the fight.
Garcia is a Mexico City police officer and attorney and boxing’s oldest world champion at age 45. She has a background in martial arts and began training at the Románza Gym with famed Mexican trainer Nacho Beristain, who also trained the Hall of Fame champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
“Dreams do come true. We have to keep on fighting. We have to keep on working. Remember that whenever we start something, even if we are tired, something made us start in the first place,” said Garcia. She now hopes for a unification fight
Six for Six for Moldazhanova
Most Valuable Promotions chose the right fight for the ESPN opener. The doubters who dismiss women’s boxing due to the lack of knockouts would be proven wrong by Albina Moldazhanova of Russia (6-0, 6 KOs), who looked like a battering ram against veteran Kirstie Bavington of England (10-7-2, 2 KOs). Bavington was game, but she wasn’t able to let her hands go against the incoming fire from the Russian.
Bavington finally yielded in the fourth round to a series of punches ending with a vicious left hook dropping her. Although she managed to get on her feet, the referee stopped the fight to prevent any more damage. Moldazhanova landed 26 of 59 power punches in her seven minutes in the ring (44%).
Albina Moldazhanova is a star in the making 💥😳 ——— LIVE NOW on ESPN | #MVPW07 https://t.co/drgQnVOCxf
— MVP – Most Valuable Promotions (@MostVpromotions) November 9, 2026
Moldazhanova is the first female fighter signed by manager Egis Klimas, who has worked with a stable of impressive talent including Sergey Kovalev, Vasiliy Lomachenko, and Oleksandr Usyk. After her fight, she said she would like to fight British three division champion Terri Harper. Sign us up.
MVPW07 Before the Bell Undercard Results
In the main event of the prelim card, former college athlete Brittany Sims and accomplished amateur Shera Mae Patricio battled for the WBA regular bantamweight belt. The winner becomes the mandatory challenger for the WBA World Bantamweight champion Dina Thorslund.
But there was no winner – or rather, both were winners as the fight was scored a draw. The scores were all over the place: 100-90 for Sims, 97-93 for Patricio, and 95-95 even.
Sims of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (10-3-1, 5 KOs) and Patricio of Wainae, Hawaii (10-0-1, 3 KOs) both fought at a high work rate, but the 36-year-old Sims was willing to fight on the inside, pressuring Patricio and pushing her back. Though the rounds were close, Sims did what she needed to win.
On hearing the scores, Patricio dropped to her knees, perhaps in relief. Don’t be surprised if fans see this one again on an MVPW card in 2027.
It wasn’t the only scorecard surprise.
After Nat “No Love” Dove and Nayeli Rodriguez fought to a draw over a year ago, the pair met again. Though Dove was the favorite and appeared to get the better of Rodriguez, the Texas judges saw it for Rodriguez in another close contest. All three scorecards read 77-75, with two to Rodriguez of El Paso (8-2-1) and one for Dove of Philadelphia (8-1, 2 KOs).
Dove’s face said it all as her jaw dropped in surprise in her first loss as a pro.
Nayeli Rodriguez vs Nat Dove trilogy could be coming 😳 @EmilyAustin ——— Prelims are live NOW on MVP’s YouTube | Main Card 8:30PM EST LIVE on ESPN | #MVPW07 https://t.co/FCzgvtLoi6
— MVP – Most Valuable Promotions (@MostVpromotions) November 9, 2026
Dove landed 53% of her power punches, 86 to just 53 for Rodriguez (32%). Both women agreed they’d be willing to run it back in a third fight. “I definitely won, but we can do it again,” said Rodriguez. “This fight was ten times better than the first one,” added Dove.
Minimum weight prospect Jocelyn Camarillo of Indio (8-0, 1 KO) remains undefeated with a solid decision win over Nazarena Serra of Argentina (6-3, 1 KO). Scorecards were 59-55 and 58-56 twice.
Gayle Falkenthal is an award-winning boxing journalist with more than four dozen awards for both written and video coverage from the Boxing Writers Association of America, Society of Professional Journalists, and San Diego Press Club, where she is the past president. She is the only woman journalist who is a full voting member of the BWAA. She is the Boxing Editor for NY Fights based in San Diego, California.
