Mikaela Mayer: “I feel better than ever. I feel like I am just getting started.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I feel better than ever. I feel like I am just getting started.” 

Everyone expected the rematch between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan to be an exact replica of their first fight. The odds were close again. The pundits were divided. It was expected to be decided by wafer-thin margins. There was that narrative that it was Ryan who had the scope to improve more from the first fight. But Mayer always believed that she would win far more clearly this time. And she did. Mayer retained her WBO world welterweight title in some style, removing all doubt as to who the better fighter was.

Ryan had fleeting success in the opening two rounds. She boxed more on the back foot, a tactic that surprised Mayer somewhat.

“At first, I thought I was in a fight with a different person. She switched up her game plan, and it didn’t feel like a rematch at the start of the fight,” Mayer told me over Zoom. “But I knew that she would eventually come to me. I always felt that she would revert back to her fighting ways at some point.”

After sharing the opening two rounds, at least on my unofficial scorecard, Mayer took control of the fight and dominated the majority of the fight. The WBO world welterweight champion asserted her dominance with her work rate, body shots, and combinations that Ryan simply couldn’t deal with. In simple terms, Mayer threw more and landed more. A close fight on paper turned out to be anything but.

“I knew the first two rounds were a bit of a toss-up,” Mayer relayed to me. “Sandy probably should have kept boxing. But I really let my hands go. For this fight, I thought, just take one round at a time. That’s one of the big things I have learned. Never think you are ahead. Always keep your foot on the gas. There were times in the fight when I was putting four and five punch combinations together, and I was trying to do that in every round. I didn’t let her push me back. I didn’t wait too long, stepping forward with my body shots. Every chance I got, I would let my hands go. My goal was to make it clear. I wanted to solidify every round one by one.”

Despite their intense rivalry, Mayer hopes Sandy Ryan fights on and believes the former champion can come again. “Sandy can’t beat me, but she can still beat a lot of girls.”

Almost as soon as Mayer had her hand raised in Las Vegas at the end of last month, thoughts immediately turned to what’s next. Lauren Price, who holds the WBC, WBA, and IBF welterweight baubles, is the obvious target. A fight for undisputed status at 147. Preliminary talks for a summer winner-takes-all showdown have already started. A specific date and a venue are already on the agenda. 

Price, in an interview with Sky Sports, stated that she wants the fight in August in Wales and even referenced that advances have been made for Tom Jones to sing her to the ring. But Mayer equally wants that hometown advantage.

“I have had some conversations with my team,” Mayer told FightPost. “I know I said I wouldn’t do the fight in Cardiff, but if they offer me the right numbers, I would do anything. But having the fight with Lauren Price in America isn’t ruled out either.” Top Rank has put the money up for Mayer to have her last two fights on home soil. Don’t be surprised if they do so again.

But wherever it lands, a showdown with Lauren Price seems the logical next fight for Mayer. Both fighters want it. The only question seems to be where and when it happens. Confidence is high that it will indeed happen next.

Mayer has put herself right back in position after two years without a world title. That gut-wrenching defeat to Alycia Baumgardner in October 2022 left her on the outside, looking for a way back in. That victory over Ryan last September gave Mayer what she so desperately needed. Leverage and control.

But thoughts of a rematch with her old rival are never far away. Baumgardner is now aligned with Jake Paul, and the money and the eyes that Paul brings could, at some point, bring Mayer and Baumgardner together again. “If they are smart, they will come knocking for that rematch.” A rivalry that is still very much unfinished business.

After hooking up with Kofi Jantuah, Mayer seems to be a reborn fighter. The repeat win over Ryan was a career-best performance, and Mayer is convinced her best years are still ahead of her. The American certainly isn’t thinking of retiring anytime soon. Lauren Price looks like being next, but the likes of Baumgardner, Chantelle Cameron, and even Claressa Shields could all follow in the next year or so.

“I’m thinking I have three more years left in boxing,” Mayer says. “Another one this year, so maybe I could have six more fights. It could be more, but I know I have at least six more fights left in me. I feel good. I feel better than ever. I feel like I am just getting started.”