A second straight trip to the U.K. was never a concern for Mikaela Mayer.

In fact, it was openly embraced by the former unified 130-pound champ.

Mayer is back in jolly old England for her upcoming ten-round, interim WBO lightweight title fight versus Christina Linardatou this Saturday at Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick. The 2016 U.S. Olympian and former IBF/WBO junior lightweight champ fights exactly six months to the day of her disputed, ten-round split decision defeat to Alycia Baumgardner (14-2, 7KOs) in their lineal/WBC/IBF/WBO championship last October 15 at The O2 in London.

Both fights follow a career spent in the U.S. though there is no question that women in boxing are far more celebrated on the other side of the Atlantic.

“Media-wise, I definitely feel more appreciated out here,” Mayer told BoxingScene.com. “When they do a story out here on me, the whole country gets to it. Whereas America is not really like that. Out here, the influence is much greater. So, the businesswoman in me always thinks about where I can go to make the most of my career, where I’m wanted. I’ve always had the dream of building up the market for women in boxing in America.

“Mel [Takimoglu, Top Rank’s UK-based publicist] had the great idea that we should come back here. She told our team, ‘The buzz here is still going for you. Come back and keep up that momentum, they love you here.’ We agreed.

When the fight had to get moved to another show, we had a choice. Do we fight on ESPN+ as the co-feature to Robeisy (Ramirez) and (Isaac) Dogboe in Tulsa (Oklahoma)? Or do we go to England, and fight as the co-feature to Joe Joyce on ESPN+ AND BT Sport?”

With that came the decision to stage the interim WBO lightweight title fight on this weekend’s show. The bout serves as the chief support to the Joe Joyce-Zhang Zhilei interim WBO heavyweight title fight, with the show airing live on ESPN+ in the U.S. (3:00 p.m. ET) and BT Sport in the U.K.

Interestingly, both Mayer and Baumgardner—two standout U.S. talents—had a supporting cast in the U.K. prior to their championship clash last October in London. Baumgardner—an Ohio-bred boxer who lives and trains in the greater Detroit area—was fighting in England for the third straight time, while Mayer developed a following beginning with her spirited back-and-forth verbal battle with Sheffield’s then-unbeaten WBC junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper.

The fight with Baumgardner functionally carried two promotions, with a five-week delay due to the untimely passing of Queen Elizabeth II last September. Not even the first official defeat on her record has dulled her popularity in the U.K.

“I have so many great fans here who believe in me,” stated Mayer. “I did all that work, really twice because we had two promotions for the same fight since the queen had passed before the first date. But we did all that work selling the hell out of the fight. In the process, we made a ton of fans.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox