Mikaela Mayer: “I think the majority of my next big fights will be at 140 and 147. Probably at 147, because that is where all the girls are going.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I think the majority of my next big fights will be at 140 and 147. Probably at 147, because that is where all the girls are going.”

“You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.”

I have interviewed Mikaela Mayer several times since her fight with Alycia Baumgardner last October. The boos of support from the London faithful for Mayer that greeted that controversial decision that ended her world title reign at super-featherweight changed nothing. They couldn’t give back her unbeaten record or the world titles. They couldn’t even give us back the Mikaela Mayer we were used to. The boisterous, supremely confident fighter of million-dollar quotes, many of them I could never use, was put on ice until the grieving process had run its full course. It wasn’t well-meaning words that fell on deaf ears that she needed. It was time.

Mayer had demons to extinguish that only seconds on the clock could resolve. As our interviews progressed over several months, you could visibly see Mayer recover. It was probably something akin to an addict going through the 12-step program of recovery. With each of those steps, day by day, interview after interview, Mayer found herself clean of those thoughts that had engulfed her since that painful loss to her most heated rival. That defeat will never ever stop hurting. Thoughts of revenge will never go away. But Mayer is now back to her old self. Old might be a touchy subject to some, especially as the American has recently celebrated her 33rd birthday. But over Zoom, Mayer insists that age is just a number and her prime is still to come.

“I do think my best days are ahead of me. You have to remember I didn’t take up boxing until I was 18,” Mayer told FightPost. “I have got a lot of miles left in me. I’m still learning, I have only been boxing a short amount of time compared to most world champions. I still have a ton of what I want to do. I feel fine, and I am finally letting my body fill out. So, I feel stronger than I have ever felt. I have more experience, so I don’t think I am on the decline just yet.”

A return to London in April was another important step on the road to recovery. It wasn’t without drama. Lucy Wildheart was drafted in the day before the fight, a late-notice opponent with nothing to lose, fighting a superstar of the sport who had everything to lose. It could have gone wrong. Critically wrong. Mayer, with no time to prepare, knew another defeat could have had disastrous consequences for her career. Maybe even leave it dead in the water. But while Wildheart proved a stubborn opponent and a worthwhile one, Mayer blew the cobwebs off to win widely on points and claim the WBC Interim lightweight title in the process.

It was her lightweight debut, and it might be a case of one-and-done in that weight division. The win over Wildheart earned her the mandatory position to fight Katie Taylor, but with the fighting future of Taylor seemingly set in stone for the foreseeable future, Mayer has moved on to pastures new.

“Going to 135, the goal was Katie Taylor. That was obvious. Winning that last belt made me mandatory for Katie. But the fight with Katie isn’t possible, I am frozen out of a world title fight with her for at least a year,” Mayer says accepting that if she wants world titles, her immediate fighting future lies elsewhere. “Katie has that rematch with Chantelle Cameron and then the rematch with Amanda Serrano. After that, I guarantee you that she will retire. I don’t see her taking on the next generation of girls. And even if she doesn’t, I can’t sit around for a year and wait for that. There are plenty of big fights for me at the heavier weights. I think the majority of my next big fights will be at 140 and 147. Probably at 147, because that is where all the girls are going. I think 147 is the next exciting division. It used to be 135, but all the girls are going to 147 now. We are all sort of migrating to that weight class.”

The welterweight ranks are now laced with talent. Natasha Jonas, a recent addition, winning the vacant IBF title, a win that has put her on the Mikaela Mayer radar. But the winner of the forthcoming unification clash between Jessica McCaskill and Sandy Ryan will also become a target. Chantelle Cameron could also join the party once her business with Katie Taylor is over in November. Mayer is open to a fight with any of those names:

“You have got Jessica McCaskill, Sandy Ryan, and Natasha Jonas. Chantelle has told me she is going to 147 after her rematch with Katie. We have spoken, and she has asked if I could make 147 because she is interested in that fight. We are doing our next fight at 140, fighting a top contender there in September, and then we are looking at the next fight in December or January with one of the champions at 147.

“There are some big fights out there. Natasha is at the point in her career where she wants the big fights. There is Sandy because I think she beats McCaskill, and I really want to fight Chantelle either at 140 or 147. Then you have Terri Harper. Like I said the other day on Twitter, she is still on my hit list. There are plenty of big fights out there for me in the next couple of years.”

If a title fight at 140 or 147 fails to materialise before the year ends, a fight with her old verbal sparring partner Terri Harper could be resurrected. Harper currently resides at 154, but with all the big fights likely to happen down below, Harper will almost certainly want in at some point in the near future. The WBA super-welterweight champion has teased on Twitter about a possible catchweight fight with Mayer, but while the idea wasn’t completely dismissed by the American, it is only likely to happen if Mayer can’t get other fights over the line. But stranger things have happened, and it can’t be ruled out with so many moving parts in play. But Mayer wants either Ryan, who she thinks will beat McCaskill, or Jonas. They have or could have belts that Mayer wants and ones that she can build on.

“Ideally I would like to go to 147 and challenge Natasha Jonas or Sandy Ryan, but as you know a lot of things can happen in boxing, Mayer says knowing results and politics often decide what comes next. “What happens if Natasha or Sandy don’t want the fight, but then Chantelle is available at 140, and she wants to fight me and defend her titles against me. But what if Chantelle wants to go to 147. I just don’t know how things will unfold. What if Chantelle vacates her belts at 140 and goes to 147, and the 140 belts become available. I would gladly do that.”

It does seem that Mayer is more than keen on a fight with the undisputed light-welterweight champion of the world. They have spoken privately and said it publicly that they are open to fighting each other. Mayer believes Cameron beats Taylor again, and a fight between the pair will move a lot closer if Taylor can’t reverse her first professional defeat:

“I know Chantelle really wants to fight me. We’ve exchanged a few messages. She’s been really sweet. She said I beat Baumgardner and that I got robbed and feels really bad for me. Chantelle says we would make a great fight, and I would love to see us in the ring together. We would both get paid really well for that. I wished her good luck against Katie, I think she will beat her again. So we can go from there.”

The only thing missing from the Mikaela Mayer rebuild is a world title. The missing piece of her therapy jigsaw. Moving to 140 and then on to 147 is a smart move, maybe the only move she has other than waiting patiently in line. But that isn’t the Mayer way. Mayer thinks her name and the Top Rank dollar will force open a door for her. She might be right.