Mikaela Mayer: “I don’t have a grudge against Natasha Jonas. She just has something that I want.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I don’t have a grudge against Natasha Jonas. She just has something that I want.”

It’s been just over a year since Mikaela Mayer suffered her first loss as a professional. It was, in many ways, a devastating and heartbreaking setback. Maybe even more so now with recent events shining a further dark cloud over that loss. Mayer went through her grief period as she labelled it. Trying to process that defeat to her most heated rival, Alycia Baumgardner was beyond hard, even more so when she and many others firmly believed she was the victim of an injustice. The former unified world super-featherweight champion knew nothing could change what happened in London last October. But while Mayer had lost plenty, she hadn’t lost everything. Eventually, Mayer began that long road back to reclaim what had been lost. The former teenage rebel had found a cause once again.

Mayer not only moved on. She moved up. A one-fight stay at lightweight in April against Lucy Wildheart in London pushed the demons even further into the afterlife, before the realisation that her body needed to grow further and that all the doors were firmly locked for her at 135, prompted Mayer to target a new weight division. And a new rival.

The American made another visit to the UK in September to fight Silvia Bortot in Manchester with her prospective next opponent sitting only a few feet away. Bortot stayed the course but was no match for a fighter looking for redemption and a return to wearing another alphabet bauble around her waist.

As the rain slashed down at my end of the Zoom call, Mayer had a completely different weather experience back home in America as she walked and talked along some sunny street with her friend and partner in crime Ginny Fuchs walking alongside. As she reflected on her last fight, Mayer was happy with her performance in Manchester.

“I thought I did good. I thought I boxed nicely,” Mayer told me.”Coach Al was happy with everything that I did. He said I listened well, and that is always the most important thing that Coach Al approves of my boxing. I am only going to get better because I am still adjusting to the weight. I spent so much time cutting my weight down that I didn’t let myself fill out the way I wanted to, so It’s hard to make the jump up in weight and build up my strength. I was cutting muscle for all those years, so even though I have the weight, I’m still getting used to getting my power in there. 142 was still a cut for me, and I am excited to go to 147. I am going to go through a whole training camp feeling strong and comfortable.”

The unhealthy, if productive days at 130 are now long behind her. The body looks thicker, muscular, and, more importantly, healthier. Mayer is still adjusting to her new surroundings. A different type of training to build muscle rather than just focussing on cutting weight. The signs are good that Mayer can enjoy a return to her former glories at her new weight. The win over Bortot was encouraging, but Mayer is looking for more.

“By doing proper strength training and in my eating, I can get even better. I am taking in a lot more protein now,” an excited Mayer relayed to me. “I have been training at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. They have some really good conditional coaches that are peaking me really well. I have stopped running as much, I had to run a lot to get to 130. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had the conditioning. But the way they are doing my strength and conditioning at the UFC PI gets me to where I need to be. It is lots of explosive work rather than loads of endurance work. So I am just focussing on the explosive energy systems, and I want to see it all come through. I am excited about moving to 147 and this fight with Natasha Jonas.

“The biggest difference is the training camp. I always felt like shit in camp. I never felt super strong, but I knew it would all come together in the fight. But I never had that good feeling in training camp because in my mind I was training hard and working hard and I just thought that was how I was supposed to feel. But now I am training at a heavier weight, I can see the difference. I felt so good last time, but the second I started dieting down, I felt like shit again. But for the next camp, I don’t have to worry about that because I am not cutting a whole lot of weight. Just ten pounds, five will come off in training, and the rest in Fight Week. I am now able to reap the benefits of all my hard work in camp by refuelling myself.”

The fight Mayer wants is one with the IBF welterweight champion Natasha Jonas. The Liverpool fighter was ringside working for Sky Sports when Mayer beat Bortot and then immediately targeted her. Talks commenced almost immediately, and FightPost understands that those talks are at a very advanced stage with a number of possible dates in January and February already being thrown around. While anything in boxing is possible, it looks like a case of when the fight will be announced and not if.

“When I spoke to my manager last week, he said they are just figuring out the dates,” Mayer said, a fighter who firmly believes Jonas will be next. “Tasha hasn’t signed anything yet, but they have no worries about her not agreeing to the fight. We know Tasha wants the fight to, so we are not worried about that at all. I don’t know if she has worked her money out, I have worked my money out, so we are all good there. We have no issues with the dates, whichever one they choose is fine with us. I have no problem going to her hometown because that is an option. I have no problem doing the fight in Liverpool. There are no obstacles for me.”

Mayer had that once-in-a-lifetime rivalry with Baumgardner, but there will be no repeat with Jonas. There is respect on both sides, but in different ways, they need each other.

“There really is no beef with Tasha. Beef needs to be there naturally, so I am not going to force anything against her. I don’t have a grudge against Natasha Jonas. She just has something that I want. This is my chance to be a world champion again, which is where I believe I belong and to get the ball back in my court because the last year has been slow and boring.” Mayer says, reflecting on the frustrations of the past year. A year that has been one of rebuilding both physically and mentally. But the American craves, demands even the fights that belong in the bright lights. The headline fights that satisfy her lofty ambitions.

Jonas, a two-weight world champion, will come with her own expectations and ambitions. She knows a win over Mayer could be her gateway to a fight with Chantelle Cameron or any of the other big names that reside in and around the welterweight ranks. Mayer knows beating her Olympian will be far from easy.

“Tasha is a southpaw, and even though I have fought southpaws before in the amateurs, I haven’t fought one as a pro. I think that is her biggest advantage. I think she also has an advantage because she has been at the higher weight a lot longer, and she would have allowed her body to fill out. But then again, that is the reason I have fought at 135, 142, and now 147, I have been doing that, and I feel really strong. I also still have the quickness and the sharpness. I don’t think I have lost any of that.” Mayer says, a fighter already with one eye on what’s needed to beat the reigning IBF champion.

“I don’t think she is as elusive or as quick on her toes as she was when she was a top amateur. Being at the heavier weight has probably made her a little heavy-footed. I benefit there with my athleticism and being sharper. I know she has a lot of experience, so it will be a competitive fight for sure.”

In April the plan was to try and force a fight with Katie Taylor, but with avenues seemingly blocked in the immediate future, Mayer saw an opportunity at 147, and knowing Jonas was free from any such restrictions, she made the Liverpool fighter her primary target.

“Tasha is just the quickest route back,” Mayer told FightPost. “I was at 135, and there was no immediate chance to fight Katie Taylor with all that she had going on. At 140, you have Chantelle Cameron fighting Katie again, and then she said she will be moving up. So, who is the big fight at 140 for me, I’d just be wasting my time there. So I am just going to jump to where the opportunity is and meet everyone there. I am not 22 anymore, I can’t just sit around and wait for the opportunity I have to go to where I can get there the quickest.”

The fight ticks plenty of boxes for both. Mayer gets an opportunity to once again call herself a world champion, and Jonas gets the big fight with the purse to match that she has wanted since her wafer-thin loss to Taylor in 2021. A meeting of mutual benefit that will push the winner onto even bigger things. Mayer knows the importance of the fight with ‘Miss GB.’

“We are both at the stage of our careers where we just want to fight the big names. I feel I should have had more big fights at this point, and in the next year, I want to make sure I get Chantelle or Sandy Ryan. To me, this is my third big fight after Hamadouche and Baumgardner, and these are the types of names I want on my resume.”

It is a one-fight deal. The winner takes it all.

“There is no rematch clause for me and Tasha. I don’t think I have the right to ask for a rematch clause because I am not the champion.”

Neither fighter can afford to lose. Jonas, at 39, will know defeat to Mayer will almost certainly be the end of the road for her. But while Mayer is six years younger at 33, she knows her career hinges on beating Jonas.

“I am confident of winning. I have to win it. I believe I am the more skilled fighter, and that I will come out on top. But I have to win it, it will be career-ending for me if I don’t. The career I want will be lost. I’ll always have a career in the sport, I’ve built a name for myself, and I will always be a fighter that people want to fight. But the career I envisage for myself will be lost if I don’t beat Tasha. My legacy and getting the big fights that I really want. I don’t want to catch another loss, I don’t want that for my career. I’ve already had a setback and lost a year of my prime. And that sucks. For me to get back into position, I can’t lose this fight.”

It is those words that hit home harder than any others for this observer. It is difficult not to get emotionally invested in the stories and lives of fighters that you interview. And you start to care about them. You feel their pain of defeat and celebrate their victories. Jonas and Mayer are the two fighters I have interviewed the most. Both have given me more time than I have a right to ask for, and whoever wins their fight early next year, the emotions will be different from any other fight. I hate the fight and love the fight in equal measure.

I’ll be happy for the winner but more gutted for the loser. In many ways, it will be a difficult watch. But it’s the fighters that I feel for rather than my own conflicting emotions. The difference between winning and losing never more apparent. The meaningless baubles that litter the sport are often worthless in reality. But the IBF belt carries real significance and value for Jonas and Mayer. Both know it could all be over once the final bell has chimed. The winner will have everything. The loser will have nothing. A fight with great risk. And with even greater rewards. The winner will go home with the world title. The loser will just go home. Anyone for the draw?