In a dominant performance, Mikaela Mayer established herself as the top dog of the women’s super featherweight division as she outpointed Nigeria’s, Helen Joseph.
The fight was supposed to be a big test for the 2016 US Olympian, however, she comfortably cruised through a ten-rounds unanimous decision victory at the Bubble in MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.
This was also the first time in Top Rank promotion’s history that a fight card was headlined by a women boxer. Initially, the card was supposed to be headlined by WBO super featherweight champion Jemel Herring.
Herring was supposed to fight Jonathan Oquendo, but it failed to materialise as Herring tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time. He was supposed to fight Oquendo on July 2, but he tested positive that time as well.
3 years to the day after signing with TR, @MikaelaMayer1 breaks new ground tonight. #MayerJoseph | ESPN – 9pm ET / 6pm PT pic.twitter.com/CEpJCl6yer
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) July 14, 2020
Mikaela Mayers also became the first female boxer to headline an ESPN main event.
Mikaela Mayers’ victory today has out her a step closer to the world title. She has already compiled a record of 13-0 with 5 KOs. The current titlists in her division are Terri Harper (WBC), Ewa Brodnicka (WBO), Maiva Hamadouche (IBF) and Hyun Mi Choi (WBA).
While she put on a terrific performance, she did so without the presence of her longtime trainer Al Mitchell. He tested positive for COVID-19 and was suffering from heavy fever, but is currently recovering well.
Mikaela Mayer hopes that her coach will be pleased by her performance
Following her victory, she stated that her coach is her biggest critic, but she hopes that he will be pleased by her performance.
“[Mitchell] is my biggest critic, so even though I won every round, I probably didn’t work the body enough,” Mikaela Mayer said after the fight. “I abandoned my jab at times, but I think, all in all, he’ll be happy.”
“[Top Rank promoter Bob Arum] said, ‘Great fight,’ and that the next one will be for the title,” said Mayer. “We’ve been trying to get a world title fight for a while now.” (H/T – ESPN)
Other Results
Lightweight Ruben “El Tigrillo” Cervera (12-2, 10 KOs) won a six-round unanimous decision over Clay “3rd Degree” Burns (9-9-2, 4 KOs). Cervera knocked down Burns in the third round and then scored an easy 58-56, 59-54, 59-54 unanimous decision victory.
Former World No.1 amateur, middleweight and Team USA alumni Javier Martinez (1-0, 0 KOs) outpointed Ryan Burrs (2-2, 0 KOs) over four rounds. All the judges scored the fight 40-36 in favour of the debutante Javier Martinez.
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