Alycia Baumgardner and Claressa Shields are back at it again.

The latest entry in their back-and-forth outside-the-ring rivalry: Last Saturday, during the Richardson Hitchins–Gustavo Lemos fight card at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, several media outlets and who-knows-how-many amateur iPhone videographers captured Shields (who served as on-air talent for the broadcast) and Baumgardner in a heated, protracted argument.

If nothing else, the confrontation brought up a question: Given the length and intensity of the fighters’ rivalry, why haven’t Shields and Baumgarder yet stepped inside the ropes to hash things out?

READ MORE :“What’s the Point of This?”: Claressa Shields and Alycia Baumgardner’s Verbal Altercation Gets Fans Riled Up

It’s a weighty problem.

Shields (14-0, 2 KOs), a two-time gold-medal-winning Olympian and two-division undisputed world champion, competes at middleweight. Baumgardner (15-0, 7 KOs), herself an undisputed champion, competes at junior lightweight. That’s a 30-pound gap in weight – almost certainly a bridge too far for matching the fighters.

Dmitry Salita, Shields’ promoter, recently spoke to BoxingScene about the odds of a Shields-Baumgardner happening.

“Alycia is out there speaking complete nonsense, going on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast, talking about fighting Claressa,” Salita said. “It is like Manny Pacquiao challenging Mike Tyson. It is so ridiculous – it is not real. And people that don’t really know boxing or follow women’s boxing, they just see names. They don’t understand weight classes, [but] they think about it and talk about it.”

Salita, who has sought to revive boxing in the Detroit region with a developmental, ShoBox-like series on DAZN, has known Baumgardner for some time. A Fremont, Ohio native now training under Bill Haney in Las Vegas, Baumgardner rose to fame as a professional in Detroit working with LJ Harrison and Tony Harrison.

Yet there is a certain amount of negativity, completely independent of any beef with Shields, that lingers over Baumgardner’s career. Last July, a pre-fight drug test sample from Baumgardner yielded “an adverse analytical finding for a banned substance” that put her under a microscope and led to a suspension from the Association of Boxing Commissions.

Baumgardner has since been exonerated by the WBC (the sanctioning body that collected the sample in question) and, according to the fighter, is no longer under suspension by the Association of Boxing Commissions.

But it will be difficult for Baumgardner to fully put the issue behind her until she makes her next fight.

Is there even a possibility it could come against Shields?

“I called her manager,” said Salita. “‘We will make the fight at 154.’ And like Don King used to say, ‘There is only one way to say yes and 99 ways to say no.’ So they said no in 99 ways.”

Salita said any theoretical Shields-Baumgardner fight would have to happen now “because Claressa is growing” and hasn’t fought below middleweight in years.

In any case, the promoter suspects Baumgardner was never really serious about taking on the fighter many describe as boxing’s GWOAT (Greatest Woman of All Time).

“It is all talk,” Salita said of Baumgardner’s desire for a Shields fight. “It is a way to make herself relevant, and the way she has gone about it has not been classy.”

Claressa Shields, the undisputed reigning super middleweight queen, isn’t backing down from a challenge. After being called out by undisputed super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner, Shields fired back with a bold statement: “I will fight – and beat – her at any weight class.” However, it’s not just words anymore. Both boxers recently got into a heated face-off on the sidelines of the Richardson Hitchins vs. Gustavo Lemos fight.

READ MORE :Claressa Shields completes epic body transformation ahead of MMA comeback fight: ‘I conquered depression’

“I say yes, I will fight Claressa Shields at 147, make the fight,” Baumgardner declared on an Instagram live video. “Size does not matter to me, baby,” she insisted, “It’s the skills, baby.” Claressa Shields responded by telling her to come up to 154 lbs if she wanted to fight her. What ensued was a barrage of social media mudslinging from both sides. Every interviewer was asking them questions about the other. So naturally, with so much bad blood, things were expected to come to a head soon. Well, that’s exactly what happened at the recent DAZN event.

At yesterday’s fight between Richardson Hitchins and Gustavo Lemos, Claressa Shields, and Alycia Baumgardner, who were in the audience, got engaged in an irate confrontation after the fight had ended. Amid the shouting fest, Baumgardner accused the undisputed champion of wanting to be like her.

Well, this tuned up the pitch drastically and then Baumgardner started calling Shields, “Insecure.” It was at this time, that Shields even smacked Baumgardner’s hand away from her face. DAZN posted a video of this altercation, with the caption, “[watch] @alyciambaum and @Claressashields go at it.” Even Shields acknowledged the confrontation in her post on X after it happened.

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She wrote, “Ran up on that b***h, f**k on h*e.” This debacle between the two top female boxers and former friends definitely excited the fans, but the difference in their weight is still the problem that lingers.

Fight is exciting but the logistics present a dilemma

The internet is buzzing after a heated encounter between champions Claressa Shields and Alycia Baumgardner. Here’s a breakdown of how fight fans reacted on Twitter. One of the tweets captured the raw excitement many fans feel about a potential Shields vs. Baumgardner fight. The anticipation is palpable, with fans eager to see these two talented boxers go toe-to-toe.