NEW YORK -- Unified junior lightweight champion Alycia Baumgardner reached out to embrace Bo Mi Re Shin as the final seconds evaporated in their unified junior lightweight title fight Friday night.
It had been a grueling fight but also one that, save for a couple of rounds, Baumgardner largely controlled, beating Shin by unanimous decision to defend her WBA, WBO and IBF titles. The judges scored the bout 98-92, 98-92 and 99-91.
"All I knew was, I had to be consistent and use my jab to set things up," Baumgardner said in the ring. "It was up to me to set the pace and set my shot."
Baumgardner's title defense followed a scary situation in the co-main event, during which unified super middleweight champion Shadasia Green was taken out of the ring on a stretcher after her upset knockout loss to Lani Daniels.
Mike Leanardi, Most Valuable Promotions' head of boxing, said Green was taken to a local hospital and was awake and talking.
In the main event, Baumgardner fought three-minute rounds for the second time in her career.
In the days leading up to the fight, Baumgardner said she learned about taking her time and pacing from her first venture into three-minute rounds last year, when she defeated Leila Beaudoin. That bout showed Baumgardner that she can successfully fight longer rounds.
"Now, I want to bring in the other parts of me that I know I can bring out," she said before her fight against Shin. "And that's just the meaner side, the more aggressive side, the hungrier side, the go-get-it side. And that's what I'm aiming for Friday night."
Baumgardner's energy grew before the fight, with rapper Lil' Kim accompanying her to the ring with her song "The Jump Off."
After spending the first minute gauging Shin, Baumgardner (18-1, 7 KOs, 1 NC) settled into the fight well, attacking with clean jabs to create distance in the first round and then alternating between going to the body and then to the head in the second.
She landed multiple clean uppercuts to Shin's head in the fourth round, bringing the fans to their feet with what initially appeared to be a knockdown before referee Sparkle Lee waved it off.
Baumgardner said later she believed it was a knockdown.
"I knew that her aggression was going to be an advantage for me because she just comes forward," Baumgardner said. "So, timing is everything. You saw it with the uppercut."
Shin's best round occurred in the sixth, when she landed a clean jab and later a clean cross and an uppercut to Baumgardner's head, startling her. Shin (19-4-3, 10 KO) put pressure on Baumgardner for part of the seventh round, including a flurry of punches as the round ended.
Baumgardner, ESPN's No. 7 pound-for-pound fighter, settled down again in the eighth and withstood aggressive attacks from Shin in the final round. After the fight, Baumgardner called out unified junior welterweight champion Katie Taylor.
Taylor, ESPN's No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter, has said she wants one more fight before retiring.
Baumgardner said she has spoken with Taylor about a potential fight, adding that she would return to two-minute rounds if it meant landing the Taylor fight.
"Yes," Baumgardner said, sighing. "Anything to get the fight."
In the co-main event, Daniels (12-4-2, 2 KOs) captured the IBF and WBO super middleweight titles with her ninth-round TKO of Green (16-3, 11 KOs).
The fight was stopped after Daniels landed a slew of right hands to Green's head, leading the referee to halt the bout 32 seconds into the round after Green did not throw a punch.
Green was initially standing after the loss before she was placed on a stool. She was then quickly placed on a stretcher and taken out of the ring with MVP CEO Nakisa Bidarian following behind. Bidarian accompanied Green to the hospital.
Daniels was also taken to a local hospital for precautionary reasons, according to Leanardi.
