Undisputed junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner will return from a lengthy layoff Friday when she defends her titles against mandatory challenger Delfine Persoon. The fight will headline an all-female Global Combat Collective card at Lux Studios in Atlanta and stream for free on Brinx.TV and Fubo Sports.

Baumgardner will be boxing for the first time since a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs was overturned following her unanimous decision win against Christina Linardatou in July 2023.

Baumgardner (15-1, 7 KOs) is promising a stoppage win inside six rounds against Persoon (49-3, 19 KOs) to parlay the performance for more significant fights at higher weights as she heads into the final fight of her Matchroom Boxing contract.

“I want the superfights. I want to showcase the highest level of skills and pedigree and a woman in business,” Baumgardner told BoxingScene. “I look completely different in this camp. I'm stronger, physically and mentally. It just gets better. I can only imagine how it will look when I fight Katie Taylor or Amanda Serrano. I'm the top of the top, and top of the food chain.”

Taylor and Serrano have a scheduled rematch for the undisputed 140-pound championship on Nov. 15 during the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul undercard. Baumgardner believes Taylor will win the sequel as well after being awarded a razor-thin decision in 2022.

A potential fight against the winner would require Baumgardner to jump up from 130 to 140 pounds. But Baumgardner has even bigger plans by facing fellow Michigan rival Claressa Shields.

Shields (15-0, 3 KOs) last fought as a heavyweight, at 174½ pounds, and knocked out Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse in July, taking a break from her undisputed middleweight title reign for a crack at heavyweight glory. 

Baumgardner and Shields have been at each other’s throats in recent months. Baumgardner believes she can bridge the weight gap to settle their beef in the ring.

“I agreed to fight Claressa at 147 pounds,” said Baumgardner. “She agreed to it. There is proof that she said this. Claressa is at a stage of her life where she wants things to be easier for her. That's why she moved up to heavyweight. Good for her. We can fight at 147, like I stated. If she don't want it, she don't want it. Competition is at the 130-to-147 range, and that's where I plan to reign at. Right now, it doesn't make sense to go up to 154 pounds. You have to be smart about these things each time you move up a weight class. I'm not going to jump into something if it doesn't make sense.”

Baumgardner, 30, said she has more superior skills than Shields, 29, a two-time Olympics gold medalist and four-division champion who has fought just twice as a 154-pounder, the lowest weight of her career, from 2019 to 2020.

“She's my size, and I am bigger,” said Baumgardner. “As a fighter, we're competitors. I don't see anyone as a threat.’

“You see the sweet science in my fights. The jab, power, right hand, combinations. I put it together way better. It's a better package with me. 

“For me, fighting Claressa was about the money, but it got personal. Because it got personal, as a smart businesswoman, you would think she would be like 'this is great,' but it has not been the case.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on , , and , through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via .