Mikaela Mayer: “There is a lot I haven’t shown the world yet, and I now want to see what I can accomplish at a more comfortable weight.”

Mikaela Mayer: “There is a lot I haven’t shown the world yet, and I now want to see what I can accomplish at a more comfortable weight.”

There is a myth from the uneducated about Mikaela Mayer gathering a little bit of momentum on social media. The comments that have been doing the rounds since last year are that Top Rank don’t know what to do with their fighter or even that they have given up on her completely. As ever with the endless tweets from the same old accounts, can we still say that now that Elon Musk is constantly and annoyingly meddling with things, the truth often paints a very different picture.

Yes, Mayer is back on UK soil, but sadly, to the annoyance of many, no doubt, it is not because Top Rank want rid or that they have no further plans or use for her. The American hears and sees what is written from the bedrooms of the ‘experts’ and no doubt smiles at the ignorance and moves on.

“People say those things because they don’t know what we are planning. It’s just business, and it will all unfold, and then people will see the reasons behind me fighting in the UK again.” A jet-lagged Mayer told me over Zoom just a few hours removed from making yet another trip to her adopted fighting home.

Mayer returns to action this Saturday night, opening the PPV section of the Boxxer card this weekend in Manchester, headlined by the rematch between Liam Smith and Chris Eubank. Mayer last fought in April, a routine win over late substitute Lucy Wildheart in London. The former unified super-featherweight champion made her lightweight debut, but with opportunities extremely limited at 135 and with a body that is crying out for more, Mayer has decided to move up through the weights and will fight Silvia Bortot at a 142lb catchweight fight with her eyes now firmly fixed on challenging for a version of the world welterweight title in her next fight.

The American seems different from April. Excited and energised for what lies ahead. The days of weight-cutting are now seemingly over.

“My days at 130 are behind me. My days of cutting weight are behind me,” Mayer told me. “I feel much better when I am not dieting down or on a calorie deficit. This is how I want to feel. I want to enjoy what I am doing. I want to fight at a comfortable weight. I can’t wait to go to 147. If you look at the girls I am going to be fighting, I am still taller than them. I feel so much better and happier. I am stronger in sparring. When your body is performing the way you want, you can do more. Ultimately, I feel I am getting better because I am not just surviving. It is a feeling I don’t want to give up, I don’t want to cut weight anymore. It sounds crazy coming from someone like me who used to cut so much weight, but I just feel really good, and I want to continue enjoying what I am doing.”

Boiling her body down to 130 was taking its toll. Mayer is 33, and she accepts that she should have moved up sooner. The exact point, lost in time. She always made weight, but there has to be a trade-off on fight night. But there are no regrets, only excitement and a fire-reignited.

“When I was in fight week, I felt fine. I had done all the work and slimmed down, and I felt fine. But was I the best version of myself, that’s what I am looking at?” Mayer says, questioning if the Mayer at 130 was only operating at a fraction of her capabilities.

“When you are doing all that hard work, you are just surviving because you are on such a calorie deficit. I didn’t realise how much I was struggling until now. You are doing all that work and not reaping the benefits. You are not putting on the muscle. You are just surviving because you only had 300 calories for lunch. There was some point that I should have moved up. It could have been after the Hamadouche fight because even then, I was cutting and not allowing my body to fill out. It might have even been after my first world title fight. But I just don’t know and I can’t even go there in my mind. But I had a great run at 130, and it was time to move up, and that’s it. I don’t regret my journey at 130, but there is a lot I haven’t shown the world yet, and I now want to see what I can accomplish at a more comfortable weight.

“I have been sparring 12 x 3-minute rounds, I am so energised. I used to do that before, and Coach Al would keep pushing me and say one more round, one more round, and I was tired, exhausted, and getting pushed around. But now I am doing it, and I am just boxing smoothly because I am still zoned in and I am not exhausted, I am focused, and I stay sharp for 12 rounds. I used to have to run hard every single day to make 130. My endurance was good, but when you are training so much endurance to make weight, you are losing the explosiveness that you need, that power. So I am training that, less running and more explosive training. I was curious to see if that would affect my sparring. Would I be able to go as long, but I feel even better now. I have switched my training methods, I have learned a lot about my preparation, and I have changed a lot of things.”

We are likely to see a different version of Mayer on Saturday night. The Wildheart fight was difficult in many ways. The emotions of her last fight were still in play, at least to some degree. The fight was made at lightweight, and Mayer told me the weight cut was more or less the same from her days at 130.

“I didn’t make these changes for that fight. I needed to go up, but I didn’t know how much I needed to go up. Making 135 was still a hard cut for me. I didn’t really have time to put on all that muscle and change the way I was training and change the strategy of my strength training and my eating. I was still recovering emotionally from the loss and deciding what my next move was. I was still kind of in a transitional phase. I am moving up, and I am doing it in a really smart way, and I want that to show.”

The fight with Bortot is a stay-busy fight, but one that must be dealt with before any thoughts of what lies ahead. Wanting to make a statement is an overused phrase, but Mayer does want to send a warning out to her rivals at 147 and show off a few new tricks from her latest camp.

“It’s a chance to show everyone what I have learned and how I have adjusted to the new weight. I want to go in there and practice these things. It’s one thing to do in the gym, and I have been sparring better than ever, but it is another thing to do them in the fight. That’s what I want to do on Saturday. It’s a fight for me to show how I have made those adjustments on the big stage. I want to make a statement for a few reasons. I want to show that I am still a big player in the sport and show that I am still in my prime. I want people to say that this new weight really suits her. It takes time to reverse what I have been doing before. It takes time to build that strength up, and that’s probably why it didn’t come through in the Wildheart fight. I still have some way to go, but I want to show that the new weight has affected my body in a positive way. I want to show my power, and I want to box and be slick. I want to go back to my boxing because you can’t Hamadouche these bigger girls because they are a lot stronger. I want to get back to using my jab and getting off those slick combinations.”

With most of her future rivals UK-based, it makes sense for Mayer to fight in the UK again, her third fight on the bounce on UK soil. Almost certainly, a win in Manchester will mean Mayer will be travelling to the UK again in the next few months. The aim is a fight with the IBF welterweight champion Natasha Jonas, who will be ringside on Saturday night working for Sky Sports.

Jonas has options, but the most lucrative of those options looks like being a fight with Mayer. It is the reason why Mayer is fighting in Manchester.

“We’ll see how this week plays out. I want to get a feel for what everyone is thinking,” Mayer told me, hoping she will get the news she craves at some point during fight week. “We are in negotiations. Natasha Jonas is at the point in her career where she wants the big fights. But she has options, I am sure Boxxer would like to put their two girls together and for Tasha to fight Lauren Price. Or she could unify with either Sandy Ryan or Jessica McCaskill. But I genuinely believe that the offer from Top Rank to fight me will be her most lucrative one. Top Rank will pay to get me the big fights.”

The move-up in weights looks to be one that ticks every box. Mayer will have no shortage of opponents in the next year or so.

“You’ve got so many girls. Not just Tasha, but Sandy Ryan and Chantelle Cameron, they are fights that I hope to get done in the next year. Lauren Price is there, too.”

Caroline Dubois has called out Mayer on numerous occasions, but Mayer has no immediate interest in that fight. The priority for Mayer is Jonas and not Dubois.

Last October, Mayer was about as low as I have seen any fighter. But time has healed many things. There is now a clear path. The mind is clear, and the body is being allowed what it needs. Mayer seems happy and excited with no thoughts of the past, and I don’t think that was the case in April. The wounds from suffering her first professional defeat were still raw, but Mayer has moved on and up. The signs are good for Mayer, and if what she says is true, a reborn and revitalised Mikaela Mayer could be a very dangerous prospect for her future rivals.