Mandatory rematch unlikely for Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan

There is little chance that the WBO will order a mandatory rematch between welterweight titleholder Mikaela Mayer and the woman she dethroned, Sandy Ryan.

That doesn’t mean the Mayer-Ryan rematch won’t happen.

Kevin Rooney of Matchroom Boxing asked for Ryan to be granted a rematch during a Thursday meeting of the WBO ratings committee at the sanctioning body’s convention in Puerto Rico.

“I know there’s special circumstances around controversial decisions,” Rooney said. “Depending on who you ask, the decision was controversial, it was questionable, it was close, it could’ve went either way. I’m taking nothing away from Mikaela. A tremendous fight by both girls.”

Mayer took a majority decision, one judge seeing it 95-95 while the other two ruled it 97-93 and 96-94 in her favor. But what Matchroom’s request truly was based on was the bizarre incident that happened to Ryan on the way to the event in New York City, when someone threw paint on her. There have been no arrests yet in that case.

“The circumstances leading up to the fight that night is what was controversial,” Rooney said. “The fact that Sandy went ahead with the fight rather than pulling out, she wanted to please the fans, please the committee. It was the main event – [she wanted to] please [show promoter] Top Rank. The fact that she went ahead with it, with everything that happened, was remarkable. With everything that happened, it would be only right to have that fight immediately ordered again.”

Mayer is a Top Rank fighter. Carl Moretti, the vice president of boxing operations for Top Rank, argued that the promotion’s fighter hadn’t received immediate sequels following her own losses.

“Previously, Mikaela was on the wrong end of close, competitive fights with Natasha Jonas and Alycia Baumgardner,” Moretti said. “And we requested that rematches be made, and I got [denied].”

Moretti explained that Mayer wants to keep her options open.

“We’ve had brief discussions so far with Matchroom about doing a rematch [with Ryan],” he said. “Mikaela would just like the opportunity to explore the winner of Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano first. And Natasha [Jonas]. Obviously, those are attractive fights as well. I think, as of now, I don’t know if it should be ordered. Let’s see how those fights go, and go from there.”

Gustavo Olivieri, who was the WBO’s in-house counsel for years before being elected its new president last week, said he didn’t see any legal grounds for ordering an immediate rematch.

While it’s the WBO’s championship committee that will make the final call, Olivieri will recommend against it.

“The circumstances that happened were outside the ring, not inside the ring,” Olivieri said. “There was not a misapplication of the governing rules. The scores were not controversial. There was no certified evidence of any wrongdoing as pertaining to the fight itself.”

But Oliveri then emphasized what Moretti had noted: The door is not shut on a rematch between Mayer and Ryan. It’s just that Mayer wants to keep her door open to other opponents.

“I believe [Mayer-Ryan II is] the fight that makes sense for both parties,” Olivieri said. “I’ll let you guys talk. Maybe you guys can reach some sort of an agreement. But I don’t see it. Maybe the [championship] committee has a different opinion. Their opinion has the final say.”

Said Moretti: “There’s a natural path that fight might happen anyway.”

Rooney also asked for a No. 1 spot in the WBO’s welterweight ratings. Ryan is currently No. 2 behind Jessica McCaskill, even though McCaskill announced her retirement in July.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.