Mikaela Mayer: “Sandy Ryan won’t be pushing me from side to side. We all know that I am the bully here.”

Mikaela Mayer: “Sandy Ryan won’t be pushing me from side to side. We all know that I am the bully here.”

“I want to do things that scare me,” an old quote from Mikaela Mayer that typifies her mindset.

“That’s like the toxic thing in me. I am most comfortable when I am not comfortable,” Mayer told me when I reminded her of what she said when she turned professional after the 2016 Olympics. “I am such an extremist. If something isn’t extremely challenging to me, I get bored. I get sidetracked. I seem to thrive under stress.”

Mayer has had to deal with many things since suffering that debatable defeat to her fierce rival Alycia Baumgardner in 2022. She went through a period of grief and no little stress as she tried to find a way back in.

Leading up to her fight in January against Natasha Jonas, Mikaela was talking about winning the fight as her way to get back her leverage. A win and the IBF world welterweight title would have seen Mayer take back control of her own destiny. “I have to win this fight,” Mayer said repeatedly.

You could see that in the American as the fight edged closer. A demeanour that told you the importance of that fight in Liverpool.

“For the most part, everyone wants to stay motivated and have positive thoughts about a fight. You put the work in during training camp and you have to trust that. But you’d be lying if you said that you don’t think about what if. What if it doesn’t go my way? How does that then affect my life?” Mayer says when I asked her if losing a fight ever comes into her mind.

“It’s such a bad feeling that you try to push away. You can’t sit there and dwell on it. You have to focus on the good stuff. Sometimes, with the stress of a fight, I wonder why I do this. But I thrive on it. I don’t know what I would do without it. I would just be bored.”

Mayer lost a controversial split-decision decision to Jonas in January. Her eyes closed as Jonas was declared the winner after ten brutal rounds. Her team was in disbelief in the immediate aftermath. Thoughts of being robbed again of a rightful victory on UK soil. Thoughts of what does happen now clearly already in play. But the performance that Mayer served up and all the controversy surrounding the judge’s cards left Mayer still a force in her new division.

It looked inevitable that Mayer would get her first professional rematch. Several dates were pencilled in. Both fighters thought the deal was done until every avenue was eventually exhausted, and Jonas and Mayer had to begrudgingly accept that they would have to move on without each other. It was very much a missed opportunity for all involved.

“The money was all agreed. Jonas was fully onboard. But Boxxer couldn’t secure us a date for some reason,” Mayer says of why the rematch didn’t happen. “I had an offer to fight on the Queensberry card on July 27th just to stay busy. But I turned it down because Boxxer said they wanted the rematch with Jonas again. We had a possible date on August 31st. But then I was told it’s not happening. It’s off.

But as one fight fell away, another fight unexpectedly got made.

“I then got told I was fighting on September 27th at Madison Square Garden in the main event against Sandy Ryan.” Mayer relayed to me. An initial offer Top Rank had made a month or so back was rejected by the Ryan camp. But when a second offer was made, both fighters had found their new dance partner. For Mayer, it’s a return to a fight with a bit of an edge to it. Already, it has started.

Kay Koroma was previously in the Mayer inner circle. A long-time member, but when Koroma started working with Ryan as well, a parting of the ways was always inevitable. Koroma was out, Kofi Jantuah was in. The two now rival coaches have exchanged more than words in recent times. Ryan and Mayer, you sense will now be trading endless insults on social media as the business of selling a fight now begins.

“There’s a ton of drama, and maybe Top Rank got a whiff of all that drama and thought this would make for a very entertaining build-up. Mikaela doesn’t like Sandy. Sandy doesn’t like Mikaela. The coaches don’t like each other. I don’t know if that helped move things along. I don’t really care at this point, I’m just glad we got the fight. There is a rivalry between us both. It will be built up around that she took my coach. But he was trying to double-dip, and I wasn’t ok with that. But at the end of the day, it was a blessing in disguise because Kofi is a hundred times a better coach. I am learning so much.

“Sandy probably thinks she has got it in the bag because she has my old coach, and he knows so much about me. But Kofi has already elevated my game so much, and he will have me ready. I just feel he is the missing ticket that I needed, and Coach Al (Mitchell) is still my head coach. Coach Al is such a brilliant strategist. We are now a much stronger team.”

After all the mutual respect that was Jonas and Mayer earlier this year, Ryan and Mayer will be a return to the heat that made her rivalry with Alycia Baumgardner so memorable. Mikaela Mayer, you feel will now be in her element.

“Obviously, I have a bit of a mouth on me, and I like the rivalries because it leaves more of an impact. People pay more attention, and it gets their eyes turning. It gets people more excited about the fight. It makes the fight a bigger deal, and we have been made the main event on ESPN. It will be a pretty big deal.”

After losing two disputed decisions on UK soil to Baumgardner and Jonas, Mayer will be somewhat relieved to be having her first fight back on home territory in two years. A period of four fights in England that made commercial sense is now replaced by a fight in New York that ticks those same ever-so-important business-related boxes.

“I don’t have a problem with fighting in the UK, I am more than willing to go over there for a big fight and when it makes sense. But I do miss fighting in the US,” Mayer told FightPost. “I am definitely excited to be back. Sandy is now training over here as well, so it makes sense. With the build-up they are going to do, it will be a big sell.”

Despite the intense rivalry that will surely go a lot deeper, Mayer respects Ryan as a fighter, but the American believes that she is the better fighter.

“Sandy is a good fighter. She has got a lot of amateur pedigree. But I do think her head is a little big right now because she had that good performance against Terri Harper. But that was Terri Harper, and I am not Terri Harper. I have more experience with top-quality girls. Sandy is a strong opponent, but I just think I can do more. Sandy Ryan won’t be pushing me from side to side. We all know that I am the bully here.”

I do believe Mayer was restricted in the build-up to her fight with Jonas. A far more reserved version of someone who has an endless selection of million-dollar quotes in her locker.

We didn’t see the heat and the beef that we got with Baumgardner. Mayer, other than a little dig at how high Jonas wore her shorts, knew she didn’t have a Baumgardner-like character in front of her. She didn’t try to fake something that wasn’t there. But Sandy Ryan will give Mayer what she needs. They have a narrative that they can run with. Mayer, as she says herself, has a mouth on her. She will undoubtedly use it. The seeds are already starting to flower.

“I want to get this right. I want to hurt Sandy. I really do, I want to hurt her.” Mayer says. A fighter already thinking of what lies ahead and a fighter seemingly flourishing under her new coach. A little more power. A return to her boxing skills. Mayer plans on being a far more rounded fighter against Ryan.    

Mayer is a better fighter when she has an edge to her. A fight that means a little bit more than just the WBO welterweight bauble that will be on the line. It might not quite carry the toxic nature of the Baumgardner rivalry, but make no mistake, this fight is very personal to Mikaela Mayer. There is a rebel, a bit of a devil inside Mayer. The fight with Sandy Ryan will likely bring that side out of her. In many ways, a return to the old Mikaela Mayer.

In 2021, Mayer put herself in what she would call an uncomfortable situation by going toe-to-toe with Maiva Hamadouche. The fight with Ryan could be a repeat of that unforgettable fight for the unified world super-featherweight titles. Another fight for the ages and Mayer will hope that this time her work doesn’t go unrewarded.