Boxers are not required to be fashionable or eloquent or bombastic, but all of those things are helpful, especially for fighters who are looking to bring in a wider audience. Someone who didn’t know anything about Baumgardner but was encountering her for the first time would assume that she is a big deal. The ornate designer outfits, the bold declarative statements at the dais that spill out in a way that suggests she believes every word, they’re enough to make a casual viewer certain that this person is a star in their world, even if the Ring Magazine junior lightweight belt slung over her shoulder didn’t make that apparent.

This past weekend, Baumgardner was tasked with helping bring in new viewers once again. Fresh off a win over Leila Beaudoin in the Jake Paul-Anthony Joshua co-main event on Netflix, one of the most-watched women’s fights in history, Baumgardner headlined the first MVPW offering on the linear ESPN platform against Bo Mi Re Shin. Like Netflix, ESPN is one of the rare big tents under which society gathers in an increasingly siloed media world, and once again, Baumgardner was one of the faces to greet potential new followers at the entrance.

Perhaps knowing this, Baumgardner needed a memorable entrance of her own. Though Baumgardner-Shin began closer to 1 a.m. than it did midnight on the East Coast, the crowd at the Madison Square Garden theater was wide awake when Lil Kim stepped through the curtain to rap Baumgardner to the ring. The selection of Lil Kim felt symbolic – a New York rapper, for one, but also a fellow trailblazer for women in her field, and one whose talents are regarded such that she’s evaluated amongst her male counterparts, not separate from them.

Baumgardner burst into prominence in 2021 with a sensational stoppage win over Terri Harper, which in concert with her nickname “The Bomb,” established her reputation as a fearsome power puncher. Beaudoin told her trainer Samuel Decarie in the locker room following their fight that she’d “never been hit that hard,” and that it “felt like she had bricks in her gloves.” Unfortunately, fans only see results, and it is true that regardless of how much her opponents stress that her shots hurt, she hasn’t scored a knockout in eight fights, leading to suggestions from detractors that she isn’t an exciting fighter.

Never one to shy away from the chatter, Baumgardner seemed to be determined to silence that line of discussion. She chose Shin as an opponent knowing that any amount of time in the ring with the hyper-aggressive South Korean was never going to be boring, but also, maybe as an opportunity to one-up stablemate and vocal rival Caroline Dubois, whom Shin pushed to the brink last year.

Baumgardner has been one of the most vocal, and perhaps the boldest advocates for women fighting three-minute rounds, even relinquishing her WBC title due to their stance in opposition to them. Most of the discussion surrounding longer rounds for women centered around the creation of more knockouts. In the eyes of supporters, this would give women more time to do more damage, creating more KOs and thus more excitement. But all throughout fight week, Baumgardner spoke of the other advantages of having additional time.

“It's like chess. Me being able to fight three minutes has allowed me to slow everything down, set up what I want to set up, and take my time,” she told NBC News.

At the core of Baumgardner’s moves in and out of the ring seems to be just that: Control. When Baumgardner entered the world of professional boxing, not only did she have none, but none of her contemporaries did either. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Baumgardner was working outside of boxing. With her win over Mikaela Mayer in 2022, she told ESPN that she was finally able to pay off all her debt. Now, with financial stability, a promotional powerhouse in MVP with plush television deals, and the true divisional title at 130, Baumgardner has the freedom to make whatever choices she pleases, and wants everyone – especially her contemporaries – to know it.

Against Shin, Baumgardner seemed to make the choice to make the best television fight possible, not just in picking the right style of opponent, but in how she chose to approach the fight. Baumgardner was willing to engage with Shin on the inside, but very much on her own terms. Around the middle rounds, when the fire started to get a little hotter, Baumgardner switched things up and began to pot-shot beautifully off the back foot, matching Shin’s punch output while moving backward. While she did it, it was hard to miss the ever-present smile on her face, suggesting she was enjoying being a part of a high-contact, high-paced slugfest.

After 10, three-minute rounds, Baumgardner earned the unanimous decision in what might not have been the biggest win of her career – those came at the expense of Harper and Mayer – but her most exciting, and likely her most complete display of skill to date.

Afterward, talk immediately shifted to what could be next for her. Even in the build-up to the Shin fight, Baumgardner dismissed the possibility of a bout with Dubois, calling her a “C-level fighter,” preferring to focus on bouts with Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, or – if it were at a catchweight – Shields.

Baumgardner’s dismissal of Dubois prompted the discussion from some as to whether she was “ducking” the lightweight champion, which in boxing terms comes with the connotation that one fighter is “afraid” of the other. Given the aforementioned names Baumgardner has shared the ring with, it’s highly unlikely, as it is with most professional fighters, that she is shaken by the thought of fighting Dubois. The more likely answer is that Baumgardner is asserting superiority and control by being dismissive in the way thousands of fighters before her have done, while also chasing a trio of fights against arguably the three best women’s fighters ever that presently would be more profitable for her. And if doing so creates noise in opposition to her, she’s displayed plenty of comfort in playing the antagonist throughout her career.

Which brings us back to her greatest gift: Carrying herself like a star. Baumgardner has fought, and talked, her way into the center of the discussion at 126 due to Serrano, 130 in the division she already rules, 135 where Dubois reigns, 140 where Taylor resides, all the way up to heavyweight where Shields holds all the gold. Outside the ring, as she can inside, Baumgardner can now dictate the pace.