Mikaela Mayer: “I want to stop Baumgardner. I want to stop her so bad.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I want to stop Baumgardner. I want to stop her so bad.”

There is a real sense that the upcoming super-featherweight unification showdown is something special. The devoted Spice Girls fan Mikaela Mayer has added her own little spice to the dance, and with a more than willing dance partner in her fellow American Alycia Baumgardner, you feel the fight will be even hotter than the pre-fight words of much animosity.

For both, it is their defining fight. A proper throwback grudge fight that doesn’t need any false narrative to carry it.

Over Zoom, Mayer told me this is the biggest fight of her career to date:

“I’m going for the WBC title and one step closer to undisputed. And also there is a huge rivalry between me and Baumgardner and that makes it even bigger. And then joining the stage with Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall it is going to be a huge event.”

Mayer vs Baumgardner is a headline fight in its own right, but it will sit a little below, but proudly nonetheless, alongside another fight of importance on a historic night for women’s boxing. For Mayer, she had no hesitation in packing her bags and travelling to the UK to take on her fellow American:

“I love it and I was up for it the second it was brought up to me. I thought it was going to be awesome and totally iconic and unique and set a new tone set for boxing. You don’t really get this that often, you usually only get one big fight on one card. I thought it would be a really good experience for the fans who will get a one-stop shop. We were always going to have this fight in the UK we wanted to take the fight there and fight in front of the UK fans. We could have fought the week before but it would have split the fans, especially the ones travelling from America. I just thought it would be better if we put the two fights together and I am glad we did.”

It might only be a unification fight, although, in reality, it should be for undisputed status only the evasive WBA title is missing. The odds say Mayer is a strong betting favourite to win on Saturday night. The odds come as no surprise to a supremely confident Mayer:

“I’m not surprised no, come on now. I believe I am the favourite but all us fighters are a little vain in that sense, we all believe we are the best. But at the end of the day, they are just odds they are not facts anything can happen in a fight so I try not to let it get in my head. I think the odds are right, I think they know I have more ring experience and I’m the more complete fighter. The odds are definitely in my favour. But she has a puncher’s chance.

“I think people have this idea that Baumgardner is this superior boxer and puncher. I think that although she is a good puncher there are areas in the fight where she will get exposed. She doesn’t have the work rate or the guts that I have. She doesn’t have that second or third gear that I can kick into. I just don’t think she will be able to handle it or me. I think people will be surprised how much I take over the fight in the second half.”

Mayer (17-0) believes she will take Baumgardner (12-1) into deep waters, the way she outfought Maiva Hamadouche in one of the best fights you are likely to see anywhere. It was a night where Mayer proved a lot of people wrong, not just in the win itself, but in the manner of it. Mayer plans to do the same with her opponent on Saturday night:

“I plan to take her into deep waters, that’s my style anyway. She likes to keep her opponents at bay so she gets that perfect distance and set up her big shots. I’m not going to let her do that. I can’t let her do that. I can’t sit there and take pictures and stand on the outside the whole fight. I’ve got to take it to her, that’s what I do naturally. That’s my style.”

If ever a fight carries genuine bad blood it is this one. It’s gone a little over the normal and often tiresome boundaries of the pre-fight spite and venom. Who will walk dog who has done the rounds. The battle for the undisputed trash talker has been better than most fights. Both know how to sell a fight. And trust me, they mean every word they say.

Baumgardner has threatened to knock out Mayer. But while the odds may see the likely route to victory for Mayer is on points. She has other ideas:

“I want to stop Baumgardner. I want to stop her so bad. I know I haven’t had a stoppage in while but I plan on taking it to her. Other than Hamadouche, the other girls had this running style. I am still getting better, I have only been boxing since I was 18 I am still growing and developing. If she thinks she has seen me at my peak then she will be disappointed. I am constantly getting better and I want to go into the fight better than I have ever been before and stop her and show that I am levels above her. But I will gladly take the win any way it comes.”

Mayer has labelled her opponent one-dimensional in the past, and a fighter that isn’t capable of going through the gears. For Mayer, it is her greater experience and flexibility that will see her hand being raised on Saturday night:

“We haven’t seen her having to adapt yet and against me, she will have to. She will have to adapt and dig deep. I have had the experience I need to win this fight. I should win this fight. There are no excuses not to win this fight. I have all the tools I need to win this fight.”

Even before punches are exchanged on Saturday night Mayer has a plan for the future. She has repeatedly said she wants the big fights, and one name stands above everyone else. Katie Taylor is a big part of why women’s boxing is where it is today. History will be more than kind to the Irish superstar. And Mayer is intent on sharing a ring with her:

“After this fight, I want the fight with Katie Taylor. That’s the fight I really want for my resume and my legacy. And out of respect for her and everything she has accomplished and how great she is, I want to test myself against her and I want to do it before she decides to hang up her gloves. Katie always wants to challenge the best and if she looks at the pound-for-pound list and sees who is worthy of a shot I think that’s me.”

The Mayer plan goes further. A fighter who wants to maximise her time in the sport, and leave with a resume that few will be able to match. Big ambitions for a fighter who certainly doesn’t lack for confidence:

“I have got three years of my Top Rank contract left. I want the big fights I want to fight the best out there. If everything goes my way I will still be unbeaten and undisputed at 130, 135, and 140.”

Mayer is aware too many of her predecessors end up with nothing when retirement is the only fight left. The money goes and with it, there is nothing left to show from their time in the ring. Memories soon fade, and they don’t help pay the bills. Financial security is important to Mayer:

“People say they don’t care about the money. I do care about the money I have worked too hard to get where I am today. My greatest goal is to have financial security and financial freedom. I am very determined to make that happen through the hard work I have done in boxing. Women’s boxing is at a place a lot of people thought it would never be. I always thought it would reach this point and I am going to milk it for everything that I can. I want to retire comfortably.”

Mayer while not underestimating her opponent on Saturday night, goes into it with defeat, not on her mind. She has come a long way in her life, the first time I interviewed Mayer I said she used to be the teenage rebel without a cause. Her whole life drifting away, no direction, the typical troublesome teenager who smoked and drank too much, and one who lacked direction and focus. Things have changed now. Boxing has saved her and made her.

There are a few fighters who speak, and you instantly believe in what they are saying. The words carry a little more conviction than the usual pre-fight soundbites. Mayer is one such fighter. Baumgardner is far too dangerous a fighter to write off completely, but Mayer appears to have a little too much for her in a fight that could take Mayer to an even bigger stage. It is just about winning by any which way, but Mayer clearly wants that stoppage. Don’t be surprised if the unlikely happens.

Most if not all of the headlines might be about an undisputed fight elsewhere on the card, and Mayer vs Baumgardner might get a little lost in the mix as a result. But I have a feeling that the all-American showdown will steal the show. Shields and Marshall will settle their own little dispute not long after Mayer and Baumgardner will have departed the London ring, but the likelihood is that they will have an incredibly hard act to follow.