Baumgardner delivered a dominant showing, becoming a two-division champion with a unanimous decision over Elif Nur Turhan for the IBF lightweight champion on Sunday. Their 10-round bout, which headlined MVPW07 at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, was contested with three-minute rounds.

All three judges scored the bout 100-90 for Baumgardner (19-1, 7 KOs), who was the unified 130-pound champion before moving up to 135 to challenge Turhan for her title.

After the fight, Baumgardner and unified 135-pound titleholder Caroline Dubois exchanged words. Dubois (14-0-1, 5 KOs), The Ring, WBC and WBO lightweight champion, faces WBA titleholder Stephanie Han (13-0, 3 KOs) in El Paso, Texas, on February 20. Should she win, it would set the stage for her and Baumgardner to settle their bad blood in a bout to crown an undisputed lightweight champion.

Conventional wisdom was that Baumgardner, of Fremont, Ohio, was more skilled and capable of outboxing Turhan, who needed to lean on her power to pull off the upset.

Baumgardner’s superior speed and sharper offense allowed her to control the fight. Her defense also kept her from being caught cleanly by the hard-hitting Turhan of Istanbul. When Turhan, 31, landed clean power shots, particularly with her right uppercut, Baumgardner’s chin held up.

They wasted little time exchanging power punches in a fiery opening round. Baumgardner, 32, found a home for several hard straight right hands. Turhan mounted offense of her own with looping left and right hooks and displayed her physicality in the clinch.

Baumgardner hurt Turhan late in the third with a left hook to the body and followed up with a straight right hand that sent her reeling to the ropes. As she went to follow up, referee Melva Santos stepped in to halt the action, believing the 10-second warning signaled the end of the round. The stoppage to the action prevented Baumgardner from capitalizing on Turhan's shaky legs.

With how similar the 10-second warning sounded to the actual bell to end the round, it led to multiple instances where both fighters and the referee were confused.

The pace settled in the ensuing rounds, allowing Baumgardner to box and pull away. Turhan continued to wing power shots and gave a game effort, but she struggled to sustain enough offense to turn the fight in her favor.