Mikaela Mayer: “I am just going to stay busy taking the big fights. I am excited about this next option. It really excites me and I know the fans are really going to love it.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I am just going to stay busy taking the big fights. I am excited about this next option. It really excites me and I know the fans are really going to love it.“

There are many untold stories in fighter hotel bars and lobbies after a big fight night. The winners in full celebration mode, a few drinks too many, their guard is lowered, words are said that hopefully stay out of the public domain. But the losers often retreat to their rooms and their own private thoughts. Those closest to them will be in consoling mode, trying to find the right words when there are none. There will be tears and plenty of them. Not many spare a thought for the loser of a big fight. Their suffering will be in solitude. A future changed, or even decided by the stroke of a judge’s pen.

Mikaela Mayer never once thought she would lose to her rival Alycia Baumgardner. And after 10 rounds last month in October, she was convinced that she hadn’t. However, two judges saw it differently. Mayer was a fighter who had her future mapped out, but by a wafer-thin highly controversial points reversal, she was the fighter who retreated to her hotel room. She wasn’t alone, but she would have felt that way. Trying to process what had gone wrong for her, and how could it have gone so wrong. The crowd booed. And heavily. But it changed nothing. Mayer had to face up to the fact that her world super-featherweight titles and her unbeaten record were now a thing of the past.

Mayer wasn’t visible in the early hours of the following morning. Her best friend Ginny Fuchs, herself a winner earlier on the card, had just left Mayer in her hotel room. As I asked Fuchs how her friend was feeling in her darkest hour, I thought could Fuchs really celebrate her own victory when her thoughts must have been with Mayer. Mixed emotions for her and equally for Mayer.

I saw Mayer the next morning in the now deserted hotel. An awkward conversation. I was clumsy. She was polite. This wasn’t the same fighter I had interviewed countless times previously. That Mayer always breathed fire and a million headline quotes. The fighter I saw on that Sunday morning was a broken one.

Mayer was still trying to process her thoughts and was still convinced that she had beaten Baumgardner. I was in agreement. We agreed to do an interview that week. But in many ways, it was too soon. Mayer needed time. It would in truth have been more of a therapy session than an interview.

But after a Social Media break, in reality, a break from many things, the old Mayer is now back. Or certainly, something resembling it. As our respective Zoom connections joined in harmony, Mayer explained why the interview had taken a little longer to arrange:

“I just needed to make sure I didn’t do an angry interview.” The emotions are still a little raw. Even over Zoom that is obvious. But she is getting there:

“I’m doing good. I’m feeling better. Obviously when you want something so bad and you work so hard for something, and whether you agree with the decision or not, you can’t change it. It’s in history now you can’t take it back. I would go through thoughts in my head, I’ll get a rematch, I’ll get my revenge. But even then it’s still happened and I just have to come to terms with that. I am still in a great position. The one thing I did realise was that I have built such a great foundation in my career, my roots go so deep. I built it from the bottom up. One fight, one person can’t take that away from me.”

The first defeat of her professional career was a setback. There is no denying that. But equally, a temporary one. There are options for her. And plenty of them. For now, it is a case of looking forward and not back:

“I am still in a good position, I am in a great weight division, and I can go up and challenge myself elsewhere. The big fights can still happen for me and I have to continue to move forward.”

Even several weeks removed, the pain is still there from that split decision defeat to Baumgardner in that London ring. Without bias or prejudice, and on multiple viewing, I still can’t see how Mayer left that ring a loser. An easy fight to score, Mayer won beyond doubt in my opinion, subjective and what you like shouldn’t really be in the narrative. At the final bell Mayer was convinced she had won, but even before the result was formally announced she told me she had a feeling her night would end the wrong way:

“I was very confident that I had won the fight. My corner was as well. The first score I think was correct. But when they announced the second score for Baumgardner I knew right then that they were going to rob me. I just thought that you have got to be kidding me. I thought I closed the show at the end, she wasn’t doing anything. The game plan was to not engage her too much in the early rounds, make her miss and gas her out a little bit. Watching her fights, she seems to be strong in the beginning and then she fades and that is when I get stronger.”

A long-time advocate of three-minute rounds, the frustrations of her night in London have only strengthened her belief that longer rounds are needed in women’s boxing:

“In two-minute rounds, it’s like you don’t get time to play out a smart strategy. That fight proved to me that elite women need three-minute rounds. We are being held back from taking that next step and using our full-fight IQ. Now I just feel fuck the strategy I have just got to get down her throat, I’ve only got two minutes.”

There is little doubt that Mayer has suffered in silence. So many thoughts to process. The defeat, the decision, where all that leaves her. As I asked her how the last few weeks had been, I sensed a few flickers of emotion. I did wonder if the interview was still a little too soon. But Mayer, ever the fighter, held back any of those thoughts. All the words from the outside in her defence are welcomed but change nothing. It has been hard, and while defeat is nothing new, this one has hit home a little harder. A little deeper.

“It was really really hard. It’s like you are just sitting there thinking wake up wake up. This can’t have happened and you want to re-do it. You have to sit with the feeling that you can’t do it again. It’s over. Even if you disagree with it and that you got robbed, you can’t change it there is no going back. And that is a really hard thing to come to terms with. I have never really experienced it at this level before. I’ve lost in the amateurs, but even losing in the Olympics didn’t feel like this. I feel I am in my prime and this was everything I worked for. Even as a world champion you don’t always get the respect and the shine that you deserve and this was the fight to get that, and I wanted to come out on top.”

The rivalry with her fellow American shows no signs of relenting. Or fading. The Twitter exchanges are back and with much venom. There is no love here, only hate. Trust me, this is no fake beef. For Mayer, this is very much unfinished business:

“There was so much back and forth and this was such a huge rivalry. And now I want to shut her up so bad. She was already big-headed cocky and delusional. And now she believes all her delusions.”

Baumgardner is, for the time being, going her own route. Her chase for undisputed will likely come to a close early next year. Mayer has little choice but to look elsewhere:

“The only thing I can control is my next move. I told my team the only thing that will make me feel better is if they get me a big fight. And get it soon. I don’t want to wait around. Keep me busy, I will fight ASAP. And I want to fight a top contender. There are no more filler fights for me. I am in my prime now and I want to make the most of being in my prime. I only want the big fights. That is what I promised the fans and that is what I want to live up to. If I’d have gotten the decision, I would have done the rematch. For the fans. I want them to respect the fact that I give them great fights. And also you only get this kind of rivalry once in a lifetime. If Alycia was smart she would milk it for its worth.”

I have never seen Mayer lost for words, but that is a badge I shall now wear with honour. When I asked her if she had a message for Baumgardner, Mayer thought long and hard before saying:

“I have no message for Baumgardner. She has made it clear she does not want to give the fans a rematch. I am moving on.”

Mayer won’t wait, plans are already being made, but the potential rematch with Baumgardner will likely never ever go away:

“There are still so many options for me, and I am going to chase those options, I am not going to chase Alycia. But she’ll come knocking eventually because the fans want to see the rematch. And guess who else will want it. Eddie Hearn. He gets that fight in his backyard on a Matchroom card. Eddie is no dummy, he will see the dollar signs.”

Talks are underway with a potential opponent. It may surprise some. But it certainly won’t disappoint anyone:

“I am just going to stay busy taking the big fights. I am excited about this next option. It really excites me and I know the fans are really going to love it. But I am here for the rematch if she wants it but I am not going to sit around and wait forever. I think she will miss out more than I will.”

If the confidence was hit, it appears only to be a temporary one. Acceptance is hard, but Mayer accepts what has gone is gone forever. The belief is very much back:

“My confidence never went away. I still feel I am the best I really do. It just sucks because I really don’t agree with the outcome. A lot of work went into that fight and it feels like you are taking a huge step back. But I have talked to my team and we have got all these big plans and I am excited again.

“I always thought if I ever lost it would be so hard to pull myself back together to fight again. I thought how do you motivate yourself to get up and go to training. But it was the complete opposite to me. Within a week I was saying get me a fight, I want to get right back into camp and don’t get me an easy fight. Get me a tough fight. Get me a big fight.”

The loss hasn’t dampened what the all-female card at the O2 Arena meant and achieved. Two million viewers witnessed a truly historic night in a sold-out Arena. Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall served up a Fight of the Year contender, and despite her own disappointment, the night still has fond memories for her:

“The whole card was amazing, and the viewership was insane. It did huge things for women’s boxing. It was awesome and I definitely don’t regret being a part of it. For the most part, it was great and I am just going to continue to build off that. At the end of the day, it has still done a lot for my career.”

There is a side to Mayer that many don’t see, and that lost dejected fighter I saw on that Sunday morning in October highlighted the vulnerabilities that even fighters have. They have feelings like the rest of us, many forget that. It still hurts, even Mayer couldn’t hide that. In truth, she didn’t try to. Or want to. It took a little time, and it was with a little less force, but the fire-breathing fighter was back as our interview wound down. The defeat to Baumgardner has lit a fire, a burning desire to put things right. In time, she may even thank her rival. That defeat and the manner of it could make her a better fighter. Mayer has always talked about creating a legacy, the recent setback will change nothing in that quest. Mayer will have to be patient, but at some point, it seems inevitable that she will once again share a ring with Baumgardner. In a sport where money talks, there is far too much of it left on the table for it not to happen.