Alycia Baumgardner, Ben Whittaker and a busy boxing weekend: 5 things to watch

TL;DR

Boxing returns to its regular schedule this weekend, focusing on key fights featuring Alycia Baumgardner and Ben Whittaker. The ongoing negotiations for a potential Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury match continue to dominate headlines.

Key points

Boxing returns to its regular schedule this weekend
Alycia Baumgardner and Ben Whittaker are key fighters to watch
Negotiations for Joshua vs. Fury continue
The fight has been highly anticipated for years
Eddie Hearn is Joshua's promoter

After back-to-back heavyweight weekends, boxing is back to its bread-and-butter schedule over the next few days as we put talk of Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury negotiations on ice.

Pah, who are we kidding?

Despite being five or six years past its prime sell-by date, the long-awaited “Battle of Britain” is once again front and center of the boxing news agenda and it’s proving impossible to go an hour, let alone a day, without rumblings of this potential heavyweight bout topping the headlines.

But as Joshua and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, explained last weekend, until both parties have signed on the dotted line, it’s pointless getting too excited about this clash of former heavyweight world champions.

If only someone would tell the trigger-happy Turki Alalshikh this.

So, let’s take a look at some of the confirmed boxing action over this weekend — leaving a little room for some speculation.

1. Baumgardner’s latest push to become the “face” of women’s boxing

Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have made no secret of their desires for retirement in the near future, leaving the door open for a new queen of the ring to rival the likes of Claressa Shields in becoming the “face” of women’s boxing.

Alycia Baumgardner ticks a lot of boxes to be a contender for that crown.

The 31-year-old returns to the ring on Friday night defending her unified WBO, IBF and WBA super featherweight titles against South Korea’s Bo Mi Re Shin inside the Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and a convincing win on this MVPW 02 card will catapult the American’s name into the headlines once again.

Baumgardner is 17-1 (7 KOs) looks the part, talks the talk, and has, so far, walked the walk in the ring.

If she is successful this weekend, expect the typically brash Ohio fighter to call out the biggest and best names in the sport as she attempts to strike while her iron is hot.

“Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano and Mikaela Mayer, those are all three great fights. Let's get them all,” she told MVP’s UK broadcaster, Sky Sports, this past week.