You talk about your mind and body being fed and obviously, you know, you have, you have five belts and you've been successful in your career, but for those of you that have just getting to know Alicia and they're going to be following your journey on July 10th, I want to know what got you into boxing? What, uh, encouraged or motivated the eight year old Alicia to start fighting?

Yeah.

So I have to start off by saying I'm from a small country town in Ohio, Fremont.

And just being in a town like Fremont, you have to be able to dream to know that there's more outside of the small town that you grew up in, that I grew up in.

And, you know, I was so thankful to have a community gym that was free, which happened to be boxing, that my trainer opened its doors to the community.

And that's where I started boxing.

And my dad one day came home.

I mean, small places can have a big impact on our belief systems.

Mm.

Nobody was tuning in for Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall.

It was Alicia Baumgartner and Mikaela Mayer that sold that show at the O2 Arena.

And I beat Mikaela, moved on, became undisputed.

She also moved on and became another world champion in another weight class.

I have to give her credit to that.

I have to give her credit on bouncing back from a loss, because I've took a loss early in my career, so I know where her mindset is when it comes to losing, losing a-Could be everything, and then coming back and becoming a world champion and pivoting differently in your career so I know that it has to do something to character change.

Yeah.

I don't know how that changes your training regimen.

Yeah.

You know, I was in camp already, um, for eight weeks, you know, and then the fight got canceled, it got moved.

I did a total of camp for, like, al- almost 11 weeks.

So the mentality is, "Hey, you know, this gets repetitive."And you understand what's ahead of you, so stay consistent.

Still show up to the gym, still put in the work, because again, these are the, these are the times it's gonna really showcase who you are as a fighter, as an athlete, as a woman.

When things come at you, how are you gonna pivot? Everything is about pivoting in boxing, and it's about having balance and, and making sure that when the time has come, you are ready, you are prepared.

One of the reasons I love covering boxing is because oftentimes boxers will just talk about their vulnerabilities because once you're in the ring and it's just you and your talent, you either believe in yourself or you don't.

Yeah.

And you know, I've had a, a s- I had a, a long layoff up until that point, and so I know what I require of self.

And again, a B+ is not bad, but I know what I'm, I'm better at doing.

So it was, it's, it's always a learning lesson, and it's always an opportunity to go back and do what I do best, and that's to study.

That's to be better.

That's to be sharper and stronger-

Mm-hmm.

What it is to trust your power, what it is to be still and to follow through when things get hard, when things don't seem to go your way.

What, what, what advice would you give young girls that, uh, you wish someone had given you when you was younger? What advice would you give young ladies?

Yeah, I think it's important to, to give a young woman advice to know what it is to stand in power.

What it is to trust your power.

What it is to be still and to follow through when things get hard, when things don't seem to go your way.

I think it's important to, to really mentor the same way I was poured into, into somebody else, because it really goes a long way.

Life is hard, y'all.

And, and also to be a woman in, in, in a space that you may not even know who you are, ident...

Yeah.