After scoring the biggest win of her career on Sunday, Caroline Dubois knows she has options moving forward in the lightweight division.
The unbeaten 25-year-old from London controlled the fight throughout as she outpointed domestic rival Terri Harper to merge her WBC lightweight belt with the WBO strap Harper brought into The Olympia in London. Afterwards, Dubois, 13-0-1 (5 KOs), was asked if she would entertain a fight with living legend Katie Taylor. While it’s not something she would turn down, Dubois says she has another preference in mind.
“I’ve got a lot of time for Katie. I think she's a legend. If she said, ‘Caroline Dubois, let's do this’, she wants to test herself against me, I would jump at the opportunity. Who honestly would say no to Katie Taylor? She's a legend. It would be an honor to step into the ring with her. But I'm not really fussed about that fight,” said Dubois.
“The fight I'm interested in is Alycia ‘The Bomb’ Baumgardner. I think we'll be able to see who truly is the best, and I believe it's me. That's the fight I want by the end of the year, there's no need to waste time. There's no need to mess around, let's make it happen. The best versus the best. We’re five pounds difference. She's older than me. She's more experienced than me. That's the fight I want.”
Baumgardner, 17-1 (7 KOs), holder of three world titles at 130lbs, first has to handle business of her own on April 17, when she defends the IBF, WBO and WBA titles at The Theater at Madison Square Garden against South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin. Dubois is skeptical about whether the American shares her enthusiasm, claiming that Baumgardner has told their promoter, Nakisa Bidarian of Most Valuable Promotions, that she isn’t interested in the matchup.
If that fight can’t be made, Dubois says another attractive matchup would be a unification bout with IBF 130lbs beltholder Elif Nur Turhan, 13-0 (8 KOs), of Turkey. Turhan, 30, has made one defense of the belt that she won in December when she stopped Beatriz Ferreira in five rounds.
“She's going to try and run and slip and slide her way out that fight. And if she wants to say, ‘I can do more’ then I'll have another unification. I'll go after the Turk, and then we can have it by the end of this year. We need to make that fight happen, the biggest fight in women's boxing,” said Dubois.
Baumgardner, though deep in training camp for her own fight, took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to troll Dubois for her performance against Harper, whom Baumgardner stopped in four rounds back in 2021, tweeting “joke” and claiming that Dubois had gone “life and death” with Harper.
Dubois subsequently fired back at Baumgardner, citing Baumgardner’s positive test for the banned substance mesterolone before her 2023 fight with Christina Linardatou, for which the WBC cleared her of intentional use.
“She's a drug cheat. I have never in my life failed a drugs test. And it wasn't just a light little weight loss drug… it was a serious muscle performance enhancing drug,” said Dubois.
“Look at Alycia [before and after failed test]. She was explosive, she was powerful, she was dangerous. Then what happened? She failed that drug test, and she hasn't looked the same since.
“I don't need performance-enhancing drugs to be confident in the ring. I stepped into that ring 100 per cent authentically natural. She can't say the same. She can say all she wants, but she's failed a drug test for a reason. She is a fucking cheat.”
