Mikaela Mayer at 34: I am still evolving and getting better every day

Mikaela Mayer’s ambition has her running toward challenges rather than from them.

The decorated 2016 Rio Olympian and former world champion is 19-2 (5 KOs) and only wants big fights.

On Friday night, she tops the bill at Madison Square Garden’s Theater in a grudge match with England’s in-form WBO champion Sandy Ryan.

“My goal, and the goal that’s always been, is for me to challenge myself against the best,” said Mayer. “I want to make the biggest fights possible. I don’t just pursue anybody or anyone. I don’t really care so much about what’s on paper or how many belts I’m getting. It’s more, ‘am I challenging myself against top quality opponents, and putting on fights that the fans want to see?’ And regardless of the ups and downs of my career I feel I’ve always done that.”

The 34-year-old last boxed in the UK in January, when she was on the wrong end of an entertaining split decision defeat to Liverpool’s Natasha Jonas.

Both boxers wanted the rematch, but organizers couldn’t get a return over the line.

“Both of us tried very hard to make that rematch happen,” explained Mayer. “It wasn’t Natasha, it wasn’t me, there was no problems with the negotiations and all those little things that usually prevents fights from happening, it was just Boxxer not being able to secure us a date. It’s unfortunate because you had everything else that was perfectly in line and working, and it just came to a point where I had to move on. I had to start looking for other fights. Me and Jonas fought in January and now we’re in September.”

The Jonas bout marked Mayer’s fourth consecutive fight in the UK, and now she fights a UK boxer in New York.

Mayer is excited to be back on US soil.  

“I fought in the Garden in my first couple of fights, I think it was a Lomachenko [vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux in December 2017] undercard, so I’ve been there, but I’ve never headlined it, so that’s a huge stepping stone and obviously something I’m excited about and we’ve got a great fight to do it,” Mayer said. “This isn’t any old fight, this is going to be a great fight between two quality opponents with a little bit of history, so it’s perfect for a main event.

“I’m glad to be back in the US. I think a lot of people expected me to come back a little bit sooner, but businesswise the UK was where I needed to be and I would have gone back if I had to. I’m just the type of fighter that does what I have to do. Sometimes I take risks and put myself in positions most fighters wouldn’t, but it’s because I really don’t care. I just want to fight, I want to do my absolute best and put it all on the line so I stayed in the UK. 

“I’m actually surprised Sandy’s agreeing to come to the US and have it on my card. She is the champion, that’s not always standard but, look, at the end of the day I know you can get a bad decision anywhere. There’s corrupt judging everywhere. You always need a little bit of luck in boxing, so it doesn’t really matter where I am, I know I have to fight every second of every round. I’m not thinking, ‘Oh, it’s in my backyard, I’ve got a better chance’. I’m not thinking that way at all, because I’ve been there and I know what that feels like, so I’m not gonna take that risk again. But I am happy to be back with the Top Rank stable. More friends and family can come now that I’m in the US, so I’m definitely glad to be back.”

There is bad blood, too. Last year, Ryan took herself out of her comfort zone and moved to the US to work on her craft. But she moved into the popular DLX Boxing Gym, where Mayer was training.

It created a tense atmosphere and Ryan subsequently moved on, but did so with a new coach.

“It’s been a little bit frustrating the last couple of years, having to navigate my way back to the world title,” Mayer recalled. “Not only that, but I’ve moved up three weight divisions, I’ve made a move to Vegas, I’ve ended up switching teams, not everyone but certain people on my team, so there’s been a lot of moving parts these last two years but I’m really seeing now why all this stuff had to happen. I feel better than ever. I’m more confident in my corner than I’ve ever been, I’ve settled into this welterweight weight class, I’m feeling strong, and I’m starting to feel like, ‘Okay, now I see why this has all happened for a reason’. Like, the stars are aligning for me and I feel great. You sometimes have to go through the motions to find out why.”

Mayer has worked with famed amateur coach Al Mitchell throughout her career but she has also been working with former junior middleweight and middleweight contender Kofi Jantuah in Vegas.

That’s how things have worked out with this camp after DLX stalwart Kay Koroma started working with Ryan.

“Kay knew I was at 147 now, she knew I was at 147. So there’s an issue on both sides,” Mayer explained. “One, as a fighter, I would never go into a camp knowing there was a top contender there in my division. It just seems like a weird move. And obviously as a coach who I’ve been with for almost a decade, I wouldn’t have decided to take on my competition. I would have stayed loyal but that’s just me. Not everyone’s like me. So it is what it is. They made the decision they wanted to make and they did what’s best for them, so that’s what I had to do, too. I took time to make that decision and I thought about it very carefully and I went about it very carefully, but at the end of the day, I need to have a corner that I trust and believe in. And, ultimately, it was the best decision, because now I feel like I levelled up. I really do. I feel like I have an even better situation and that’s how I go back to saying, ‘Okay, it’s worked out for a reason’.”

Mayer expects to see Koroma in the opposite corner from her on fight night.

“I would be surprised if he wasn’t. He’s supposed to be. That is her coach,” Mayer said. “Coach K tried to tell me that, ‘I’m giving her Flick’ – Flick is his assistant coach – I know that they’re all a team, everyone trains together so there’s no way you can separate that but one of the reasons I knew I had to eventually leave was I turned on the TV for the [Ryan vs. Terri] Harper and Ryan fight and Coach K was in her corner, when he told me he wasn’t gonna be.

“He told me he wasn’t going.”  

Mayer’s claims come from a place of nonchalance. She is clearly content with her own set up, and despite the grudge that has formed, she is content with her own training set up.

“Obviously Coach Al, my number one guy, is always going to be in my corner,” she added. “I’ve been with him from the beginning. Coach Al is here but he lives in Michigan, he’s gotten a little older so he’s not as physical in the gym with me on the pads and stuff. I need that work still. He still is the eyes, the ears, the mind, everything behind it but I’m working with Kofi Jantuah here in Las Vegas in between camps, leading up to the camp and then Coach Al comes into work on the gameplan and make sure I’m on my Ps and Qs and doing everything right.”

Ryan is 7-1-1 and impressed against Harper. The Derby woman has Mayer’s respect as a fighter, too.

“Sandy Ryan’s a good fighter. I don’t chase fighters that aren’t skilled, that I don’t respect on some level when it comes to their boxing ability,” Mayer said. “I may not respect them as a person, some. I don’t fake my rivalries so they either are or they’re not, but she’s a good fighter. She’s a champ for a reason. We’re both big girls, too. I think we’re usually the bigger girls in a fight but I think we’re going to meet our match this time around. We have that amateur pedigree. So two very skilled fighters going at it and obviously we both want to take home that belt. That’s the kind of fights that I want.

“She looked good against Terri Harper. She looked confident, she looked strong, she pushed Terri Harper back and [made] her buckle and sort of quit. I don’t know, you could tell from the beginning that Harper wasn’t really in the fight but, again, I think Sandy is levels above Harper. I’m not a Terri Harper. Sandy hasn’t really stepped into the ring with somebody with my experience and my skill yet, so what she did to Harper won’t be what she does to me.”

Mayer’s desire and ambition extend beyond the WBO champion Ryan will be bringing. She also has designs on her unfinished business with Jonas, and Welsh beltholder Lauren Price. Perhaps there will be fights at 154lbs, but Mayer reckons she could be better than ever at 147.

“Like I said, I’m not close to being done,” she added. “I still feel like I’m getting better every day. I’m still evolving. I still haven’t hit my peak. I didn’t start this sport until later in life. I was 18, so you never stop learning in boxing and it takes a really long time to really hit that high level, so I still have a lot left to give. It’s just big fights. It’s fights that I know that the fans are going to enjoy, fights the fans want to see. That’s always been really important for me. We’re killing the sport by just taking these basic fights, worried about losing your 0, and I want to be that example that it doesn’t matter if you catch a loss, if you’re fighting the best that’s what’s important and it shouldn’t demean the rest of your career.  You shouldn’t be put on the backburner because you challenged yourself against the best and you lost your 0 in the process. I think I put on great fights. I think that I am a big draw. I still think that fighters benefit a lot from fighting me. I know my last, what, seven opponents have got the biggest paydays of their life fighting me, whether I have a belt or not. I still know I bring a lot to the table and I have a ton of skill and I’m just getting better.”

Mayer might be 34 but there is no endgame in sight. There is no bucket list to fulfil or boxes to check because she doesn’t feel the clock is running down on her career. She will be fighting a while yet, but what next? What happens when she does decide to close the door on boxing? It is not something she gives a whole lot of thought, as she prepares for Ryan, unification and big fights rather than life after boxing that won’t start any time soon.

“I’ve been doing a lot of commentating, for ESPN and a little bit for Sky and I just worked the Olympics with NBC so I feel I’ll maybe naturally fall into that full-time,” she said. “We’ll see. But it’s hard to focus on the next stage when I’m still so focused on this part of my career.

“But it’s good to kind of dabble and have that option when I decide to retire. But I’m an extremist. When I’m zoned in on something, I’m 100 per cent. When I’m done with that, I’ll let you know.”