Baumgardner Mayer: The Feud That Still Burns

Baumgardner Mayer: The Feud That Still Burns

One day Alycia Baumgardner and Mikaela Mayer will thank each other. They will look back and count their money, and be extremely grateful for what they had. A once in a lifetime feud, that neither fighter will never ever have again. It’s bitter, personal, and so bloody good. In many ways, they are made for each other.

In time, once tensions have eased enough, they will reflect over coffee and cake, but hostilities will likely be inflamed when they try and decide who will pay the bill. A push and a shove, and a patented Mayer kick will follow. And then it will begin again. In truth, it will probably never end.

Baumgardner beat Mayer in October by a close and hotly-disputed split decision to take her unbeaten record and her unified world super-featherweight titles. The London crowd booed Baumgardner heavily, and I have great sympathy for their venom. I had Mayer winning comfortably beyond any reasonable doubt. Others will disagree, and the varying views will change nothing. Only what happens next is yet to be decided. Despite what Baumgardner says, it is still very much unfinished business. And I suspect even she knows that.

Hyun-Mi Choi, the long-reigning WBA champion, and the only missing piece of the undisputed puzzle is next for Baumgardner. The American will likely win, and then thoughts will turn to what follows. Baumgardner talks of fighting Katie Taylor, but the timing looks to be against her. Taylor is likely to return around the same time Baumgardner fights Choi, and then if Taylor wins, she is being targeted for that lucrative rematch with Amanda Serrano at Croke Park. Baumgardner only gets Taylor, if the many moving parts fall in her favour. They are unlikely to do so.

If the immediate ambitions to fight Taylor does indeed come to nothing, the entry into the lightweight ranks will be delayed and despite the protests of the present, and without an obvious alternative money fight, thoughts will turn back to Mayer.

Mayer will return early next year, an announcement is imminent, and her intentions are obvious and clear. Mayer wants Baumgardner again, and knows she will have to do it on enemy territory. Mayer believes there is too much money left on the table for her advances to be ignored. She might be right.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer