As far as omens go, getting splashed with a can of red paint after leaving her hotel was hardly a good one for Sandy Ryan last night (September 27) in New York. She was just two and a half hours from fighting Mikaela Mayer in defence of her WBO women’s welterweight title and now suddenly she had an altogether different problem on her hands – and down her legs, and across her stomach. Now Ryan was trying to work out who had ambushed her outside her hotel and what it all meant.
By the time she reached Madison Square Garden, the venue of their fight, never had Ryan been so determined to both compete and beat her opponent. Yet that doesn’t mean she was in the right frame of mind to do either of those two things. Agitated and angered, some would even suggest she was in the worst possible frame of mind to enter a ring, execute a game plan, and defend her world title.
Later, Ryan would leave the ring without her belt, losing a majority decision by scores of 97-93, 96-94, and 95-95. She also left the venue with the same confusion and frustration she had taken into MSG a couple of hours earlier.
“Still trying to come to terms with what happened last night,” Ryan, now 7-2-1 (3), wrote on social media today (September 28). “I know I shouldn’t have fought after I was attacked leaving my hotel but I couldn’t let them win like that. I was fighting off empty and still felt I won the fight.
“We have obtained the CCTV (footage) and are in contact with the NYPD (New York Police Department). Pretty obvious what happened and the truth will be set free shortly. You tried to ruin my career but trust me it’s only just begun.”
Mayer, meanwhile, has denied any involvement in the paint incident and stressed in an interview with Sky Sports that it had nothing to do with her or any member of her team. She is now a world champion in a second division, having previously ruled at super-featherweight, and moves her record to 20-2 (5).
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