Mikaela Mayer is shocked at how Alycia Baumgardner performed in her first career loss.
Mayer, the undefeated 130-pound WBO, IBF champion from Southern California, thinks the manner in which Baumgardner suffered defeat bespeaks an inability to handle pressure and adversity.
Mayer and Baumgardner, the WBC beltholer from Michigan, are set to face each other in a three-belt junior lightweight unification bout on Sept. 10 at O2 Arena in London. The match will support the main event, an undisputed middleweight bout between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall.
Baumgardner, 28, lost a split decision to Linardato in what was Baumgardner’s seventh professional fight in 2018. At the time Linardato, a Dominican-born resident of Greece, sported a 9-1 record. Baumgardner would bounce back, however. Several years later, in 2021, Baumgardner upset Terri Harper with a fourth-round knockout to win the WBC and IBO 130-pound belts and earn recognition as a top fighter in women’s boxing.
Mayer, 32, has not been too impressed by her adversary, and has not been shy about voicing her contempt. Mayer believes she has far too much experience and superior skills to run roughshod over Baumgardner.
“I’m gonna box the mess out of this girl,” Mayer said on The DAZN Boxing Show. “Listen, she wants to keep me on the outside and box me, I can box better. I can box better, and when she starts to get frustrated, I’m gonna take it to her. She’s not gonna know how to handle it.
“How do I know that? She never had to. The one time she was tested and taken outside of her comfort zone and taken to deep waters was against [Christina] Linardato and she looked like a f------- bum. I mean she looked like an amateur.”
Mayer added that she thinks her back-and-forth title unification bout with Maiva Hamadouche last year was proof that she knows how to gut through rough moments inside the ring.
Despite her low regard for Baumgardner, Mayer understands that the high-stakes nature of their fight is a net positive for boxing. Moreover, Mayer believes that sharing main-event duties with the Shields-Marshall bout will cast a brighter light on women’s boxing.
“I had the choice to be the co-main event to Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall,” Mayer said. “If I didn’t want to do this, we wouldn’t have done it. We would’ve had our own main event. And yes, me versus Baumgardner is definitely main event worthy, but I was excited when they brought it up to me as a possibility. I thought it was an amazing card for women’s boxing and the fans.
“It’s a one-stop shop for two world championship fights – that doesn’t happen. And that’s what I’m about. I’m sort of about setting a new standard in boxing and giving the fans what they want and the fights they deserve. This excited me. I said yes, hell yeah, let’s make it happen.”
