Mikaela Mayer: “This time, I am going to make the scorecards even wider. I want to remove all doubt.”

Mikaela Mayer: “This time, I am going to make the scorecards even wider. I want to remove all doubt.”

Another Fight Week has begun for Mikaela Mayer. But for the first time since October 2022, she walks into it as a world champion.

Mayer will rematch Sandy Ryan this coming weekend in Las Vegas. A first defence of her WBO world welterweight title. A precious bauble that has given life and more to a career that had stagnated somewhat since that painful night at the O2 Arena in London against Alycia Baumgardner.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Mayer told me over Zoom. “Two years is a long time in a career that has a clock. I had fights that I wasn’t inspired for while I waited for the big fights to come. It was really hard. I didn’t realise how depressed I was. But I got the belt back, and I am now back on top. But it’s not just that. My hope is back as well. I was clinging to hope, but I had to keep convincing myself. But getting that belt back has reminded me how good a fighter I am and what a good hustler I am as well.”

It is extremely doubtful if the dark memories of that desperately heartbreaking night against her bitter rival will ever fade. Thoughts of revenge are a constant. But when the initial hopes of an immediate rematch against Baumgardner quickly faded away, Mayer had no choice but to move on. And up.

Mayer called it her period of grief. A couple of low-key fights back in the UK helped with her recovery. But crucially for her career longevity, time allowed her body to fill out from her super-featherweight days of deprivation. A detail that Mayer readily acknowledges. “Moving up in weight has elongated my career significantly.”

Those two plus years in the boxing wilderness tested even someone who has, in many ways, been fighting her whole life. That controversial loss to Baumgardner, a fight that many thought she had done more than enough to win, took away plenty from Mayer. The unbeaten record was lost, and her unified world super-featherweight titles went with it. But it was the mental demons that followed that split-decision defeat to her fellow American that cut deeper than anything else.

But once she found some semblance of acceptance, Mayer knew she couldn’t change anything. The seeds of recovery started to flourish.

In 2024, Mayer eventually found what she needed at welterweight. It was a year that started with another wafer-thin defeat, this time to Natasha Jonas in Liverpool. Jonas retained her IBF title, yet again, the sentiment was with Mayer. But for the second time, Mayer left England empty-handed and with a deep sense of injustice.

But that win over Ryan last September was a full circle moment. A decision that finally and deservedly went her way.

“I have such an appreciation for my journey and everything that I went through,” a reflective Mayer says of those tough last few years. “I have been at my lowest, and I have learned how resilient I am. Mentally resilient, not just physically. I realised I have always been that way. It’s a good job that I grew up with a lot of toxicity around me. I can handle it, but I know some people can’t. You have to have that mindset. People have asked if I ever thought of quitting. But I know how to handle all the ups and downs. I have never been that way. I always knew I would get it done at some point. I always knew I would be a world champion again. I have nothing to lose now. I have everything to gain.”

Boxing has truly defined Mikaela Mayer. I once referenced her during troublesome early years as a teenager without a cause. Mayer was drifting, but all she needed was a purpose. A sense of belonging. When Mayer found boxing, she had found something that was missing from her life. Boxing gave her that cause.

“For me, boxing is my therapy,” Mayer says of the sport that gives her so much. “I feel my best when I am at the height of my training camp. I will worry about myself after I retire, and I don’t have boxing as that therapy, and it’s not there to pull me back in and ground me. It’s in between training camps, where I struggle mentally. I need something to push for. I thrive on stress. I thrive on having a lot to do. I thrive off having a lot of pressure. That reminds me of what retirement would feel like.”

The win over Sandy Ryan has given her career that new life. A rivalry that was formed when Ryan started to work with Kay Koroma, a long-standing member of the Mayer inner circle. Kofi Jantuah replaced Koroma and joined Al Mitchell on the Mayer team, a move that has seemingly changed everything for the reigning WBO welterweight champion.

“I feel with Kofi in my corner now; I am learning so much. I knew my career wasn’t on the decline. I knew I hadn’t done everything I wanted to do in boxing. But the boxing world around me kind of got in my head a bit, and I was thinking, was that it? The negative thoughts were getting in. But I wasn’t done. The height of my career wasn’t beating Hamadouche. So I had to keep that mindset, even though there were days when I didn’t believe it. But when I beat Sandy, I proved to myself that I was right. I wasn’t done. Now, I have a better team, and I think the sky is the limit. I think the next chapter is going to be even better than the first one.”

The next chapter begins on Saturday night in Las Vegas. A return to the ferocious hostilities with Sandy Ryan. The first fight was unquestionably one of the best fights the female side of the sport has ever seen. There was drama everywhere you looked in the lead-up to the fight. But all the venom in the pre-fight words was replicated inside that New York ring. The rematch will surely bring more of the same. Although, Mayer believes she will win even more convincingly the second time around. “This time, I am going to make the scorecards even wider. I want to remove all doubt,” a beyond confident Mayer told me.

To her credit, Mayer isn’t interested in stay-busy fights. She wants to test herself against the very best at her weight. Mayer could quite easily have gone a different and far safer route. But she chose to give Ryan a chance to win back her belt. Almost certainly, the toughest fight that was available to her.

“Now that I have got the belt back, I don’t just want to sit and protect it,” Mayer relayed to FightPost. “This is a tough division. But I welcome that. I wouldn’t want anything less. I took the option that was the most challenging to me.”

Win, lose, or draw in Las Vegas, Mikaela Mayer has had some career. It is, in many ways, a quite remarkable story. At some point in the future, there is surely a book in her. A story of perseverance if ever there was one. That resilience has more than paid off for her. All the frustrations of the last two years are now gone. Mayer can now look forward and not back.

Mayer has bet on herself many times in her career. After leaving the amateur ranks behind in 2016, Mayer was nearly lost to boxing. Until Bob Arum came calling, the lucrative professional contract wasn’t initially forthcoming. The world of Mixed Martial Arts was waiting for her. A contract on the table. Mayer was close to being done with boxing. But Top Rank got in touch at the eleventh hour, and Mayer then started to create a life and a career that she had always dreamed of.

“I have been very lucky,” Mayer says of her career so far. “I have a great promoter. I have a great team, and I have been fighting regularly. But I would say if it wasn’t going that way, I wouldn’t be wasting my time. I have always been a hustler, and I have always wanted to be financially stable. After the Olympics, I knew I had to do something different. I couldn’t stay as an amateur making that kind of money. I was 26 years old. I had to take a risk. I had to go and make some money, but it wasn’t initially working out, and that’s why I was thinking about switching over to MMA to sign with Bellator. A lot of athletes continue to chase the dream, even if that dream isn’t working. If I was still struggling to get signed, I would have redirected my path. But I got signed to Top Rank, and they have taken really good care of me. But you can’t sit around waiting forever. You have to go out and make a living.”

Mayer talks about that next chapter in her career. As she says, the best years could still be ahead of her. A repeat win over Ryan would push Mayer towards an undisputed clash with Lauren Price in the latter part of this year. The likes of Claressa Shields and Chantelle Cameron could follow in 2026.

Mikaela Mayer will walk into the Boxing Hall of Fame when she is finished with boxing. But if she has her way, that day is nowhere in sight. “I can’t imagine retiring yet; I’ve still got so much left to do in the sport.”

Photo Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank