Mikaela Mayer: “If Tasha fights me the way she fought me last time, she will lose. I think Tasha knows deep down who won the first fight.”

Mikaela Mayer: “If Tasha fights me the way she fought me last time, she will lose. I think Tasha knows deep down who won the first fight.”

Mikaela Mayer once spent many minutes of an interview several years ago trying to retrieve one of her rescue dogs which was trying to see what delights awaited him through a fence that needed at least some repair. The memories of Mayer shouting at her beloved Moose, who seemed oblivious or ignorant of the deafening calls to get back in the garden, came flooding back when the American seemed far more excited in seeing a pigeon that had returned ‘home’ than talking to me over Zoom. Mayer had rescued said pigeon from the jaws of that very same Moose several days prior. A safe haven was found while the latest resident of the Mayer Farmhouse was nursed back to full health. A damaged wing was the injury. Moose was guilty as charged. Thankfully, the pigeon recovered and is now back doing his thing.

In the coming months, Mayer will hope that she is back to doing her thing also. Last seen in January losing a wafer-thin points decision to Natasha Jonas in Liverpool for the IBF world welterweight title, Mayer is hoping that she will finally get her first rematch as a professional.

The first fight in the hometown of Jonas was a fight of the year contender. A back-and-forth war that many felt Mayer deserved to have had her hand raised at the end of ten titanic rounds. But for the second time on UK soil, Mayer went back home thinking she had been robbed of a rightful victory.

Pre-fight Mayer was talking about the need to win the fight and getting back the leverage she needed to take back control of her career. A second career defeat was unthinkable, was very much her pre-fight narrative. But despite suffering her second reversal, Mayer lost very little in reality.

“For some reason, probably because of how the fight went, it didn’t seem like a setback as much as my first loss was,” Mayer says. “It still felt like I was in a good position because I put in such a great performance. I won so many new fans. People were impressed. I am new to the division, but they know I am still a big fight. I have built my name to the point where I am still a big payday for anyone in this division. People still want to see me fight. So it didn’t really feel like a setback to me.

“It’s funny that even leading up to the fight with Tasha, I kept telling myself that I couldn’t lose this fight. I’ve already lost one, and I can’t lose another. I feel like that every time. It’s not that I fear losing it’s just the position I will be left in if I do lose. But I lost the fight, yet I am still in position. It would be different losing to Tasha back-to-back, but I still feel there would be big fights for me. The only thing that would suck is that my stock would go down.”

The mindset of Mayer is different. In many ways, refreshing. The American is chasing the big fights and the financial security that those fights bring. But it’s about far more than the money. Mayer wants to leave a legacy. A fighter still more than a little annoyed that she will never fight Katie Taylor. A legacy-enhancing fight she has long craved. But when one door closes, another one opens. Mayer wants to test her skills against the elite. The defeats to Alycia Baumgardner and Jonas have done nothing to dampen her ambitions. The only thing that has changed is her outlook on the sport.

“All boxers think this win is everything,” Mayer told FightPost. “It’s just the way the sport works. Everyone wants to keep that 0. We have made an undefeated record so important. But to me, at this stage of my career, and I think I am proving it, when you make the best fights possible, there is no loser at the end of the day. So even though I didn’t get the decision, I am still right back in position. This is the type of example I wanted to set for boxing. This is how it should be. I’m not just focused on winning belts anymore. I just want the biggest fights possible.”

Mayer is currently deep in negotiations to secure her rematch with Jonas. The original intention was to have the rematch on the upcoming Boxxer card on June 15th in London. A card that was supposed to be a big PPV show headlined by Joshua Buatsi and Anthony Yarde and four other major fights.

But as ever, boxing never runs in straight lines. Buatsi and Yarde didn’t get over the line, and with the PPV tag now no more, and the potential revenue lost with it, which was seemingly needed to help fund the rematch, Jonas and Mayer are now in a state of limbo.

But the respective teams are still trying to get a deal over the line. While that original June date now looks remote at best, FightPost is of the understanding that other options are now being fully explored, including a potential date in July. For clarity, both Jonas and Mayer desperately want the fight and are doing everything they can to make the fight. The problem lies elsewhere.

But Mayer is still hoping that she gets a second fight with ‘Miss GB.’ It was always her preferred option despite other live options being available to her.

“I am going to be so much better. I am going to do everything I can to solidify the win,” Mayer says of a possible rematch with Jonas. “I think I did enough last time, and so do a lot of other people. But I am determined to do even better. I believe in my power now. I think I had Tasha hurt at several moments of the fight. Maybe I wasn’t used to seeing that. So, I am a lot more focused on that now. I am going in there with bad intentions. In my mind, I suppose I am used to my fights going the distance because that is my style, and I wear my opponents down because I am not a one-punch knockout artist. But in my head now, it is finish this fight. Don’t let it go to the scorecards. It’s a mentality I have had to kick into gear because I feel confident that I am feeling really strong because of all the muscle I have put on. I have never felt this strong before. I think it’s going to be worse than last time for Tasha. I am just going to do everything better.

“My coach was telling me the other day that I have to go in there and take it from her. You can’t let them do it again to you. It’s in my mind. Don’t let them take this from you. It may happen again unless I do something different. People will say that I am thirty-three, how can I get so much better. But they have to understand I didn’t start boxing until I was eighteen. I am still getting developing. I am still getting better, and at this new weight, I believe that is the missing piece in the puzzle, that strength, and that power. So it’s all coming together, and I still feel I have untapped potential. It’s hard for people to believe that, but I am different. My body is starting to fill out. I am now able to put on muscle, and this is making all the difference in the world. There is still a lot that people haven’t seen of me. But they are going to see it in these fights at welterweight.”

The controversial split decision defeat in January could easily have gone the way of Mikaela Mayer. But the slow start, which cost Mayer the majority of the early rounds on the judge’s scorecard, will not be repeated in the rematch she says.

“Starting quicker is definitely an adjustment I can make. When I start sparring, I am going to spar that way. I am thinking about everything that I can do better. If they come with the mentality that they did enough last time, they will be mistaken. They will lose. If Tasha fights me the way she fought me last time, she will lose. I think Tasha knows deep down who won the first fight.”

Mayer is still waiting. As is Jonas. Two fighters who, for different reasons, want to run it back. Mayer was already in the early stages of fight camp when the rematch was seemingly locked in before both fighters became aware that the rematch was suddenly in doubt.

But hope remains that the politics can be resolved and common sense prevails. A rematch and a rivalry that shouldn’t be wasted.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer