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Mikaela Mayer has urged networks and promoters to do more to help grow women’s boxing.
The 34-year-old is one of the sport’s most established stars and tops the bill at the Madison Square Garden Theater on Friday in a grudge match with bitter rival and WBO welterweight champion Sandy Ryan.
Mayer is returning to the scene of her third professional fight and has not boxed since a January draw with Natasha Jonas in England. Now 19-2 (5 KOs) Mayer had wanted to be busier but said Boxxer’s inability to deliver the Jonas rematch, after other terms had been agreed, had cost her time.
With Claressa Shields moving up in weight, Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano II being postponed until November and neither her nor Jonas’ boxing since January, Mayer still believes the women’s talent pool means that the otherwise seemingly comparatively slow year is not indicative a lack of progression in the women’s game after a bustling period.
“I think that it might have been a slower year this year, but what’s most important is that the talent pool is there, and we have that stable of women now,” said Mayer. “There’s no way we can fall back, because there’s just too many young girls coming up in the gyms that are just too skilled and they’re just going to continue to get better, so what we need now is more support from the networks and promoters.”
Then with a nod to promoters, she added: “The ratio of men and women on their stable lists is just too far and too wide, so it’s sort of up to them now, but the women are here.
“We’re ready. We’re training and we’re getting better every day, but that just comes with time. We knew it wasn’t going to change overnight. We’ve had success, we’ve grown so much of the sport as a group of women together in the last five-six years, so there’s no way we can go back. We’re here to stay, for sure.”
With Australian star Skye Nicolson heading to Saudi Arabia to defend her title against Raven Chapman, Mayer is optimistic that similar lucrative opportunities might be coming her way.
“Oh yeah, 100 per cent. Who wouldn’t?” Mayer said, of boxing in the Middle East. “Of course we do. So far so good. They [the Riyadh Season bills] look to be amazing. The fighters look happy. I think that you’re getting really great matchups. I think one of the reasons why you don’t get so many great matchups on boxing cards – you get your main event and then you have your undercard, right, is just because of money. They have a budget for that card and most of it goes to the main event fighters. Then it kind of trickles down from there and they just fill it with other people on their stable, get them experience, help them grow and that’s just the business structure financially. Having someone like Turki [Alalshikh] coming in where money really isn’t a problem, he is just passionate about boxing, loves it and wants to make the best fights, that’s gonna help. That’s going to help grow boxing, that’s going to help make the fights the fans want to see, so of course I want to be a part of that at some point.
“Turki came out and said that he was going to have women on the UFC cards, in 2025, so when I heard that, I knew he was open to the idea [of having women fight in the Riyadh Season bills] and it was just a matter of time, so I’m glad for Skye Nicolson, that’s a great opportunity for her. She’s gonna do great and people are gonna love her over there and that’ll help to kind of move the needle and get the rest of us out there.”
Mayer is also certain that, regardless of venues, moving up will ultimately reap rewards for her, earning her the biggest fights with the biggest names and the champions in the division.
“One of the reasons why I knew going to 147 was the right move, not just because my body physically felt like that was the weight for me, [was] I tried to move up slowly but surely, but it was like, ‘I can’t hold it, I can’t hold it, I’ve got to keep going.’ So, 147 feels really good for me and businesswise you look at it and it’s one of those divisions where all the belts are sort of separated and amongst some really good fighters. You have Sandy, you also have Tasha Jonas, and I could have a great rematch with her and then you also have Lauren Price, who’s an Olympic gold medalist.
“You have a good stable of women at 147. I think all of us together, whoever we matched up with, we’d make for exciting fights, so that’s what I’m focused on right now. Could I ever go back down? No. Could I continue to go up? Probably, a little bit. There’s a possibility at 154 but not for a while.
“I don’t see the reason to go to 154 when I have so much opportunity to go in with top fighters at 147.”