Alycia Baumgardner Drills Terri Harper in Four, Captures WBC belt in Shocker

By Ron Lewis

Alycia Baumgardner unleashed a huge right hand to stop Terri Harper in the fourth round and win the WBC super featherweight title on the Galahad-Martinez bill in Sheffield.

Baumgardner had been a big outsider at the bookmakers, but she did not look the slightest overwhelmed, beating Harper to the punch early on and overpowering her.

The finish, 23 seconds into the fourth round, came from one big shot. She had rocked Harper with a right in the second but the effect when the shot landed in the fourth was vicious, as Harper almost seemed out on her feet and referee Mark Lyson did well to jump in to save Harper from taking a shot as Baumgardner rushed in.

The 27-year-old from Michigan believed before that she was being unfairly overlooked and so it proved. She became the second unheralded American to beat a British world champion in the UK in recent weeks after Jamie Mitchell beat Shannon Courtenay.

“I dreamed of this moment,” Baumgardner said. “I looked in the mirror every day and I told myself I will be a world champion.

“I came over here as the challenger and the underdog and my confidence was 100 and I just didn’t see that in her. She was fragile so I just had to jump on it.

“I know a lot of people haven’t seen me and I have been given a platform to showcase that I can box and I can punch, but boxing is what we were doing because she was going to come to box.

“For everyone out there at 130, you know I am the top dog so come and get this work.”

Photos: Boxing Photos