Mikaela Mayer: “I think I will beat Chantelle a lot easier than people think.”

Mikaela Mayer: “I think I will beat Chantelle a lot easier than people think.”

The end of another long, gruelling week in camp was coming to an end. But another brutally hard day was just about to begin. Mikaela Mayer has been here before. She knows how her body will feel.

“It’s so hard,” Mayer told me over Zoom. “So freaking hard. Every day is so gruelling. Kofi (Jantuah) works me so hard. Every day I wake up, my body hurts. But I am feeling good. Everything is coming together. It always does.”

“All my camps have been brutal,” Mayer added. “When I was coming up, Coach Al (Mitchell) was so hard on me. He pushed me in the runs. He pushed me in the sparring. Kofi is hard in a different way. But I am definitely stronger than ever. Smarter than ever. Unless I screw up in the next five weeks, there is no way that you won’t see the best version of me in Birmingham. I feel better than I did when I was 25.”

The 36-year-old will head back to the UK in August for a triple-title super-welterweight showdown with Chantelle Cameron. Mayer will defend her WBC and WBA 154-pound titles. Cameron puts her WBO title on the line.

Mayer switched trainers a couple of years ago. The Ghanaian Kofi Jantuah is now at the helm, working alongside the ever-present Coach Al. A hard taskmaster. Compliments are not given. They are earned. Even then, they rarely come. But it is a working relationship that works. The three fights together have brought three wins. The three-division world champion believes she is improving with age.

“People at my age usually plateau, or they do something drastic to switch up and get better. My drastic thing was aligning with Kofi, adding new eyes, and switching things up. As a result, I didn’t plateau; I am getting better.”

Chantelle Cameron will represent a significant challenge for the American next month. Even Mayer concedes that on paper, the former undisputed world super-lightweight champion is her best opponent to date. There is a mutual respect between the pair. But Mayer is of the belief that Cameron is not fighting at her optimum fighting weight.

“The first fight with Katie was the fight of her career,” Mayer says. “But I saw her fight at 154, and I can see why she didn’t feel comfortable at that weight. I never thought she could be a 154-pounder. Chantelle is better at the smaller weights where she can be fast and explosive.”

Despite Mayer thinking the agreed 148-pound weight limit strongly favours her, she also knows Cameron still has room for improvement.  “I am sure she is getting better as well. We are older, but we are smart now. We know how to adjust, and we know how to train more efficiently now.”

Mayer has had her setbacks. Defeats to Alycia Baumgardner and Natasha Jonas that were strongly disputed. Even Cameron believes Mayer won those fights. But Mayer recovered, and with wins over Sandy Ryan and Mary Spencer, she looks in the form of her life. “I have had that experience,” Mayer relayed to me. “I have had those two losses. So I have had more time to navigate back and grow from that. I had those fights with Sandy Ryan, and the one with Mary Spencer. So Chantelle is fighting a very tough version of me.”

Kofi Jantuah doesn’t want his fighter having any more close fights. Jantuah wants Mayer to remove all doubt from the judges’ minds on fight night. “When you have two-minute rounds, it’s very action-packed,” Mayer told me. “We just go at it, and there is not a lot of time for the set-up. But Kofi wants me to get away from that. He wants me to leave a wider gap in the rounds. Not just I hit her, and she hits me. To dominate the rounds. Knowing the way we are, we will bang it out, but not to let the rounds get close.”

A win over Cameron will move Mayer towards even bigger fights. Both Mayer and Cameron have a rematch clause. They could fight again before the end of the year. A potential undisputed showdown with the IBF super-welterweight champion Oshae Jones is another possibility. Another undisputed clash with the unified world welterweight champion Lauren Price is still firmly in her thoughts. A highly lucrative fight with Claressa Shields is still potentially in play. Mayer knows she isn’t short of options.

“I obviously wanted Lauren Price next, but if she is going for the Claressa Shields fight, it won’t be that big of a deal because we have that rematch clause with Chantelle. So by the time I am done with Chantelle and Claressa is done with Lauren, then we can make that fight. But if Claressa wins, then I will probably just jump straight to that fight. Or if Claressa isn’t ready to fight Lauren for some reason, then maybe I go and fight Lauren. Or maybe Lauren beats Claressa, and then I might finally get to fight Lauren, and it will then be on a much bigger stage. You just never know what will happen in boxing. All you can do is take one fight at a time.”

Mayer still holds the WBO world welterweight title, and understands that she might have to defend that belt sooner rather than later. “If I don’t go back to 147 and defend that title, they will definitely take it from me,” Mayer admits.  “But I don’t really want to fight anyone other than Lauren Price at 147. There isn’t really anyone who inspires me.”   

But before too many thoughts linger on what might be next, Mayer knows she has a formidable challenge waiting for her in Birmingham. Cameron is the only fighter to defeat Katie Taylor in the pro ranks. Mayer is the slight betting favourite, but the odds suggest it’s a fight that is too close to call.

Mikaela has felt aggrieved before on UK soil. Baumgardner and Jonas both beat her when many people think that they didn’t. Mayer hopes it will be third time lucky. The American knows that this time she can leave no doubt, and is confident that will be the case next month. “I think I will beat Chantelle a lot easier than people think. I think I will outpunch her.”