MONTREAL — After stepping up in weight for the second straight year, Mikaela Mayer is next eyeing a step down the scales.
Moments after winning three of the four major junior-middleweight titles on Thursday night with a unanimous decision over Mary Spencer in Montreal, Mayer says her vision is to return to welterweight for an undisputed showdown with Lauren Price – the Welsh southpaw who holds three of the four major belts at welterweight. Mayer, who entered the fight with the WBO welterweight title, says she might try to reign over two different weight classes at the same time, if allowed.
“I’ve never been in this position, and for a minute I thought I was gonna have to choose,” said Mayer, 22-2 (5 KOs). “But I may not have to do that. They might give me an opportunity to go down, fight Lauren Price for undisputed and then come back and defend one of the three belts.”
“I'm not the type of fighter who hops around and takes forever to do things. I'll go down, fight Lauren Price and come right back up in six months and defend these belts. That's the kind of fighter I am.”
The 35-year-old Mayer of Woodland Hills, California says that a deal had been reached between her team, led by promoter Top Rank, and Price’s promoter BOXXER, only for the deal to fall by the wayside. Since their original deal fell through, both Top Rank and BOXXER lost their respective TV deals with ESPN and Sky Sports, making revisiting the deal all the more difficult.
“We had the fight locked in,” she said. “It was set for July in Vegas, and I think what happened was BOXXER negotiated that deal for Lauren Price without her being involved in it, and when they did tell her the deal we made, which was completely made, money was negotiated and everything, she said, ‘Hell no, I'm not doing that’. I guess that's her prerogative.
“That was the last date we would have had with those two networks on board so we didn’t have money. The money wasn’t there to give us the money that we deserved, so we had to put it on hold. And hopefully now they’re settled with their network deal. Hopefully Top Rank will have theirs solidified soon, and we can pull together the money and get what we deserve for that fight.”
Price, 9-0 (2 KOs), is coming off her biggest win to date – a unanimous decision over Natasha Jonas in March to unify three of the major titles at 147lbs.
Mayer, who will be leaving Montreal with the WBO, WBC and WBA titles at 154lbs, would have another path to follow to become an undisputed champion, if she were to face off with her fellow US Olympian Oshae Jones, who holds the IBF junior-middleweight title. Mayer says that she considers the Toledo, Ohio native to be one of her best friends, but wouldn’t close the door on making that fight if the opportunity presented itself.
“Me and Oshae have talked about it before,” said Mayer. “We said, you might as well make money with your friends versus your enemies. So if we have to pull together and fight one day, we’re both businesswomen, so we’ll make it happen.
“I want to go down and go undisputed against Lauren Price – that’s a big fight. I think I’d be leaving a lot of money on the table not doing that right away. So we’ll go see but I’ll leave that to my team to kind of negotiate.”
Mayer also says she wouldn’t completely close the door on moving up even further in weight, despite not having to cut any weight to weigh in at 151lbs on Wednesday, and making the 147lbs limit with similar ease.
“This is as high as I need to go,” said Mayer. “I didn’t cut for this fight at all. I don’t even cut for 147, but I’m just kind of crazy like that. If there was an opportunity at 160 that made sense, I wouldn’t necessarily say no to that. But I think right now, I have plenty of options. Right now I have to decide where I want to go undisputed first. Options are obviously a blessing.”
