The 13th Round is a recurring column written by Culture Editor Ryan Shepard about the intersection of culture and combat sports. The views of Ryan Shepard do not necessarily reflect those of Def Pen writers, editors and staff.
On Friday, July 11, 2025, fans will pack into Madison Square Garden for what has been deemed the biggest night in women’s boxing. At the world’s most famous arena, seven-division champion Amanda Serrano will challenge two-division undisputed champion Katie Taylor for all of the marbles in the super lightweight division. Not only will they headline the event, but the card, put together by Most Valuable Promotions, will feature a collection of exciting bouts featuring some of the best and brightest stars in the sport, including Alycia Baumgardner, Ellie Scotney, and Tamm Thibeault, among others.
“This is more than just a fight — it’s a celebration of the unmatched talent of women in boxing,” said Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian, co-founders of Most Valuable Promotions. “Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor have already shattered barriers and inspired millions, and this trilogy fight at the iconic Madison Square Garden will be another historic step forward for women’s sports.”
Even in celebration, this is still the sport of boxing. When the event’s two leading stars met in the Big Apple for their event’s first press conference, Taylor and Serrano verbally sparred about a variety of topics, ranging from their previous two fights to Serrano’s request for the fight to be 12 three-minute rounds instead of 10 two-minute rounds. For a few days, the fallout from the press conference remained primarily about the historic nature of the event and Serrano’s decision to press Taylor about the length of the fight. However, that’s all changed in the past few days as coverage surrounding the event has temporarily shifted to someone who is not scheduled to fight on July 11th — Claressa Shields.
For those in the boxing world, Shields is a name that most, if not all, are very familiar with. She’s and two-time Olympic gold medalist and the first boxer of any gender to become an undisputed champion in three different weight classes, defeating current and former pound-for-pound fighters like Savannah Marshall and Franchón Crews-Dezurn along the way. Not to be forgotten, Her life story inspired The Fire Inside, a biopic written by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins, Emmy-nominated actor Brian Tyree Henry, and NAACP Image Award nominee Ryan Destiny. However, none of those accolades or accomplishments and accolades will secure her seat at ringside when the first bell rings.
This week, women’s boxing set social media ablaze when a clip of Nikisa Bidarian and MVP’s new signee, Alycia Baumgardner, fielding questions from reporters surfaced online. When a question was posed about the possibility of Baumgardner and Shields meeting in the ring, Bidarian stated, “I think Claressa Shields is walking around at 190 [pounds] right now, and Alycia is walking around at 132 [or] 133 [pounds]. So, if Claressa Shields wants the biggest payday of her life, she’s going to have to figure out how to get to a weight class that makes sense for Alycia Baumgarner. That’s just the reality of it.”
“MVP puts on the biggest events for women in boxing, not what she does. So, if she wants to have that opportunity against this champion, she’s got to make the effort,” Bidarian continued.
Bidarian’s comments elicited a response from Shields and, ultimately, World War III metaphorically broke out on X/Twitter with Baumgardner, Serrano and several others chiming in. As messages were shared and insults were fired across the timeline, two important things were asserted by multiple parties:
- MVP offered Shields a spot on the all-women’s card
- Shields will not receive complimentary ringside tickets to the fight
While it’s not unusual to see boxers hurling insults and sending shots via social media, things took a bit of a turn when Serrano quote tweeted an image posted by the popular YouTube channel, Ring IQ Boxing Talk.
“Sincerely [Most Valuable Promotions and Alycia Baumgardner] aren’t looking to disrespect anyone. As a team, we are doing huge things [and] wish Claressa [and] anyone else not part of us all the best. Making a fight offer isn’t us disrespecting her in any way. We want to be part of the [b]iggest [and[ best events. I’m sad my time in the ring is almost over, but I [p]romise I will do [e]verything [and] [a]nything to assist our girls in becoming the wealthiest in the sport. We take [n]othing [p]ersonal. We are [r]eal [p]rofessionals,” Serrano wrote.
Adding on, in a separate post, Baumgardner replied to the image Serrano quote tweeted and wrote, “Cute picture.” At the surface, Serrano’s words and Baumgardner’s reply appear harmless. However, further examination of the image both Baumgardner and Serrano interacted with elicits a different reaction. The image, used as a thumbnail for a Ring IQ Boxing Talk YouTube video, shows Baumgardner in a pair of shorts and a tank top looking over her shoulder with her tongue sticking out. To the right of her, an image of Claressa Shields’s head is shown with the size of her mouth enlarged alongside a text that reads, “I don’t need MVP.” Several social media users quickly pointed out how the image mirrors those often used in the 19th and early 20th century.
“This is racist,” one user wrote.
“Yeah, this dude is racist as hell,” another user wrote.
After receiving backlash from many social media users, Serrano nor Ring IQ Boxing Talk stepped back from their initial statements. One day after the thumbnail was posted to Twitter, Serrano doubled back to Twitter and called Ring IQ Boxing Talk the “honest [and] respectful” guy on social media. Meanwhile, the YouTuber replied to the criticism again on Thursday, April 17 in a daily segment called, “Hate-Mail.”
“I put Teofimo Lopez in a dress. More specifically, I [put Teofimo Lopez] in an Alice In Wonderland dress to highlight that he’s in ‘La La Land.’ On more than one occasion, I painted Ryan Garcia green like the Incredible Hulk, highlighting his ostarine case and how he’s on the juice. Nobody turned activist over it,” the YouTuber said.
“It’s only with Claressa Shields that everybody wants to march,” he continued.
To my knowledge, there is no historical ties connecting depictions of Mexican-American boxers as the Incredible Hulk to bigotry. Furthermore, it is difficult to find any historical ties connecting depictions of Honduran men in dresses to bigotry. However, there are historical ties connecting depictions of Black people with enlarged facial features and characteristics to bigotry.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries Black people were often depicted in minstrel-esque artwork with exaggerated facial features, ranging from their nose to their ears and eyes. Furthermore exaggerated mouths and teeth were often use to mock or dehumanize Black people. This type of artwork can be found in photographs of the Coon Chicken Inn, popular cartoons and other fixtures of that era. More recently, this type of imagery has been used to mock and dehumanize the likes of Serena Williams, Michelle Obama and other accomplished Black men, women and non-binary folks. Unfortunately, this is the world that many Black people and in particular, Black women, deal with day in and day out, especially on Twitter. According to Amnesty International, Black women are 84% more likely to receive abusive tweets than their non-Black counterparts.
So, no. the content creator behind Ring IQ Boxing Talk isn’t Jim Crow nor did he live in the Jim Crow era. However, he is a popular content creator with access to information that would inform him of how this type of artwork has been used and weaponized to mock and disrespect Black peope in the U.S. for more than a century. This imagery has clear and distinct ties to the disrespect and dehumanization of Black people and will always be met with backlash in some or fashion when used to mock Black people or a Black person. More importantly, he’s a YouTuber who is now being complimented by some of the biggest names in women’s boxing after using imagery that draws on racist tropes of the past.
It is hard to describe Most Valueable Promotions as “professional” when one of their biggest stars is applauding a YouTuber hours after they posted an image reminiscent of those often see in the 1930s and 1940s. It is hard to call an image “cute” when the imagery directly next to it that has been historically used to demean Black women like Baumgardner herself.
It’s impossible to know what is in the hearts and minds of Serrano, Baumgardner or Ring IQ Boxing Talk when they tweet or post thumbnails. However, you don’t have to know what’s in someone’s heart and mind to look at an image and know the history associated with such artwork. You also know that a historic event promoting the in-ring talent of women who have taken the sport to new heights shouldn’t be tangled up in the use of racist tropes and imagery.
No one is obligated to like Shields as a person or a fighter, but the sport and the media members who cover it shouldn’t stoop to using such imagery to describe one of the sport’s most accomplished figures. It would be disrespectful to use this imagery to depict Alycia Baumgardner, Tiara Brown, Crews-Dezurn or any other Black woman who steps into a ring, so it shouldn’t be used to depict someone simply because you don’t like them or something they’ve done. While we, as fans, writers, content creators and beyond, prepare for what MVP feels will be the biggest night in women’s boxing, can we please leave Jim Crow era imagery in the Jim Crow era?
