Mikaela Mayer: “I want to stop Alycia, embarrass her and make her look as stupid as she sounds. And I have every intention of doing that.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I want to stop Alycia, embarrass her and make her look as stupid as she sounds. And I have every intention of doing that.”

The train journey to London on September 9th was always going to be a fruitless one. As the country mourned the death of the Queen the previous day, the scheduled Boxxer show the following day, was always in danger of being postponed. However, upon arrival at the fight hotel sometime before midday, hopes were temporarily raised when rumours spread that the Premier League will still go ahead with their weekend fixtures. But when they decided to postpone, the chances of the big all-female card going ahead got remoter with each passing second. And when the call came several hours later, it came as little surprise.

The WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine super-featherweight champion Mikaela Mayer was scheduled to defend her belts and look to add the WBC title to her collection at the O2 Arena. The clash with her fellow American and heated rival Alycia Baumgardner was a fight that had the look of a show-stealer, but it fell by the wayside when the fight and the entire show were rescheduled for October 15th. Over Zoom, Mayer remembered the moment she knew the fight would not be happening:

“I can just remember being at my last workout skipping rope the night before the weigh-in and my manager coming up to me telling me the Queen had died and I just threw my jump rope down. Of course, we knew because we had been talking about it, that if the Queen dies the country shuts down, which is news to me because that is not a thing in America. They kind of kept us guessing the next day, moving the weigh-in times, but we had to still make weight. I made weight, we didn’t get on the scales but I had made weight. But we knew they were going to cancel it there was no way they could go through with it.”

For Mayer, it was expected after the sad news broke on Thursday evening, but nonetheless a bitter pill to swallow. It had come just hours after a press conference that had planted many seeds, the anticipation had grown, and it was way past simmering point. Mayer, like the rest of the fighters on the card, had to make weight in case the fights still went ahead. The best weight cut of her life she told me on the Friday night, disappointed an understatement, but already Mayer was planning to go again:

“Coach Al had always taught me don’t stress about things you can’t control. I made weight, I had a great weight cut, and I was feeling really good. The day was going really good for me, I was just relaxing waiting to weigh in. And then they gave us the information that the fight was off, so what you are going to do. It is depressing for a second after all that work, especially the travelling to the UK. I really feel like we sold that fight really well, I know I did my part. I did so much media selling the shit out of that fight. I just think everything was lining up perfectly for it, everyone was getting excited about it. Again I made weight good, I felt sharp I had peaked myself perfectly. But this is where my experience comes in, I haven’t been through this exact experience, but I have been in situations before where things get thrown at you that you didn’t expect. You just have to adjust and keep going.”

The back-and-forth between the two rival champions had intensified all week long. Each threatening to dog walk the other, a phrase lost to this old scribe. But as Anthony Joshua might say, I don’t understand it, but I know it’s not nice. Baumgardner had made suggestions that Mayer was dead at the weight, something which Mayer told me was nonsense and said if anything, it was Baumgardner who was having issues making weight:

“I honestly think she was the one struggling to make weight and that’s why she commented on my weight cut. I really believe when she goes on about me it is just a reflection of what is going on in her own camp. I don’t know where she got this idea from that I don’t know how to cut weight. I am the champion, I have been doing this a long time and I have the best team you could possibly get. Alycia is the one who seems to be a little dried up, she could barely get her words out in that interview she did.”

Mayer had been sparring with the likes of Ellie Scotney, Sandy Ryan and others when she landed in the UK two weeks out from the fight. Sparring had gone well for Mayer, but Baumgardner stoked the pre-fight animosity further by suggesting it hadn’t. Mayer was dismissive of her opponents’ claims:

“Honestly I don’t care what this girl says anymore. She has people in her ear that are gassing her up and telling her things she wants to hear. I know how my sparring went, it has been going great, I was feeling great for this fight. People have been getting in her ear and telling her things to gas her up and get her going. And that’s what I’ve always said she is surrounded by people who are just building her up, telling her things she wants to hear to make her head big.

“You can’t trust people in this game, I probably had the same people telling me about her sparring. I had people telling me she was getting hit left, right and centre. But I don’t pay any attention to that stuff, I let it go in one ear and out the other. People are kissing your arse telling you the things you want to hear and telling the exact same thing to other people.”

Having to spend time with each other in the first fight week a few weeks ago, the mutual hate between the pair shows no sign of relenting. Talk from her rival about difficulties making weight or claims of tough spars are having no effect on Mayer, whose confidence is only increasing:

“Alycia is showing her immaturity leading up to this fight. Nothing she has said has bothered me, she is just doing it to hype herself up. Insecurity is being loud and she has been very loud. She will be known as that big mouth talking all that smack who couldn’t back it up. That is what her legacy will be at the end of the day.”

Mayer says she was in the shape of her life in September, the perfect training camp coupled with the perfect weight cut, Mayer was primed for the fight with Baumgardner. But with only a few weeks difference from the original date to the rescheduled date, it makes it problematic to peak once again. But Mayer has been here before, its nothing new, she insists that come October 15th, she will be ready:

“I feel great, I really do. I didn’t need this extra camp. I’ve got more time to prepare, yeah great, but I didn’t need no more time to prepare. I had 12 weeks in camp, and it went perfectly, everything was lining up great for me. I am the champ, I have been doing this a long time. I know how to come back down, recover and re-peak myself. I was ready to go then and I am ready to go now. That’s exactly what I had to do and come October 15th, I’ll be ready.”

The decision to postpone the original show was a difficult one, the British Boxing Board of Control removed any lingering doubt with their decision to postpone all that weekend’s boxing. It would have been a far more subdued, sombre affair rather than the celebration it deserved to be. Mayer believes the night and her fight specifically, will be much bigger now because of the enforced delay:

“This is just giving it more time to marinate, more time to build it up. From a PR and media standpoint, it’s giving it more chances to get bigger. I have another week of media when I get to the UK to promote the fight and build it up. I think people are enjoying the build-up between me and Alycia, and from that aspect, it keeps it exciting.”

Mayer, at least on the surface, isn’t feeling the pressure of having to deliver on the biggest night of her career to date. She believes her whole career so far will serve her well in her fight with Baumgardner:

“I always say that I have had a natural progression to this level. The tension and the spotlight have gradually risen over my career so I am landing in this position at the perfect time. I think there is more pressure on Baumgardner, she has like jumped a million steps and now she is in this spotlight that she hasn’t been in before. So I feel like mentally I am very prepared for this, I feel really mentally strong and so confident in my skills.”

You get many false narratives in boxing. Selling a fake beef or rivalry is old-school promoting. Hate followed by obligatory hugs and handshakes. Mayer and Baumgardner aren’t that. They both clearly don’t like each other, even cometh the final bell their issues are unlikely to be resolved. A feud unresolved, make no mistake, the loser will want to go again. Mayer, never one to question her confidence or abilities, has never wavered in multiple interviews we have done about a fight with Baumgardner. As soon as Baumgardner had knocked Terri Harper out on her feet in Sheffield last year, Mayer called her out. It took time, but she eventually got her wish.

With Mayer, there is no avoidance just an urge to get the big fights. A refreshing change in a sport that seems to like shooting itself in the foot a little too much. It took a little time to hook Baumgardner in, but now she has, boxing wins. Mayer believes she wins and wins well. A fighter you don’t question, she makes a believer of any doubters. But in a fight of this magnitude and with the mutual animosity that surrounds it, you sense winning isn’t enough for Mayer:

“I want to stop Alycia, embarrass her and make her look as stupid as she sounds. And I have every intention of doing that.”