One of the best female fighters of the current crop saw action during the past weekend, and her performance prompted a change in our mythical pound-for-pound ratings.

Ring junior lightweight champion Alycia “The Bomb” Baumgardner avenged her only loss against Greece’s Christina Linardatou in a solid performance that puts her on her way to even bigger and better things. The big names she already has in her resume, coupled with her great performance against Linardatou, seemed to be more than enough for Baumgardner, rated at No. 8 at pound-for-pound, to one-up Jessica McCaskill and Delfine Persoon in one single leap.

Let’s hear what the panel had to say about this.

“Baumgarder put on a measured and patient display of her exceptional boxing skills in her undisputed defense against her long-time foe Linardatou,” said historian Malissa Smith. “Baumgardner has the explosive force of a sprinter with flurries that can be devastating to her opponent, coupled with excellent footwork and use of the ring. As with her outing with Mehkaled in February, however, Baumgardner still demonstrates a need for recovery time, which with a fighter such as Linardatou, left her opponent with significant opportunities.”

Columnist Mark Jones agreed by saying that “I thought the Baumgardner win was closer than the assigned judges scored it. 96-94 is more realistic. Baumgardner is an impressive fighter, (she) is in her prime and simply a better fighter presently.”

“I agree with Mark that Alycia and Christina’s fight was closer than the judges ruled,” said Rincon Rojo magazine editor Irene Deserti, an amateur boxing judge herself. “Alycia has very good in the first rounds, but then her performance drops, her defense breaks down and leaves free spaces to be connected. With a strong puncher, this can be lethal.”

“Baumgardner is a great boxer,” added author and TV commentator Yesica Palmetta. “She has much more than just strength and good combinations; she has intelligence, insight and a remarkable ability. She is definitely better than McCaskill and Persoon at this point”.

With that in mind, Baumgardner was promoted to No. 6 in the pound-for-pound ratings, leapfrogging both McCaskill and Persoon to position herself at the gates of the Top 5 worldwide.

Diego M. Morilla writes for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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