Head to head: Mayer (left) and Baumgardner during a press conference at the Genesis Cinema, London
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After a turbulent week, boxing is desperately clinging to Saturday’s timely all-female card. It’s a tonic for the sport after the doping episode that prompted the collapse of Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn, and fans will treasure a bill that includes four classy fighters facing off in two mouthwatering scraps at the O2 Arena.
It would be hypocritical to emphasise just the pure matchmaking and fierce competition, as the bad blood provides an enticing element to the sport and quickly sparks chaos once that first bell sounds. Mikaela Mayer vs Alycia Baumgardner, as chief support to Claressa Shields vs Savannah Marshall, offers the right amount of all of those ingredients required for a tremendous fight with the super featherweights poised to collide and unify the division.
Baumgardner is resentful of Mayer’s smooth journey from the 2016 Rio Olympics to the fanfare of signing for promotional heavyweight Top Rank. Mayer has bristled at tags of “spoilt” and “entitled” with tempers routinely spilling over throughout the US pair’s promotional journey, which was halted five weeks ago when Queen Elizabeth II died, forcing Sky Sports and Boxxer to postpone the event.
“Everything I’ve said is truthful; I’m saying facts,” Mayer tells The Independent. “There are no low blows or talking about the way we look. She’s more worked up and going off emotion.
“I have always worked. My family doesn’t have money. I couldn’t get a job until I was 16, so I worked at a pumpkin patch for under-the-table money at 15, then as a waitress. I’ve always worked.
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“I had to, getting into tournaments wasn’t cheap. My goal was to become a national champion and get to the Olympics, so you need to show up. I stacked money, called friends to bunk up and share a room. We’d go to Walmart, buy an ice chest and stuff it with food for the week. It was a hustle. We did it, all we cared about was climbing the ladder.”
If Mayer is still fueled by her humble beginnings, Baumgardner endured a similarly arduous journey from Fremont, Ohio.
“I got out of the mud, I came from the bottom,” the Matchroom fighter details. “My parents made the best they could. My Dad instilled a work ethic. I didn’t have everything I wanted, but I had just enough to have that grit and grind to become something, a world champion and then some. My story says whatever you can accomplish with work ethic, it’ll pay off. It’s still paying off.”
Titles on the line… Mayer and Baumgardner
From lengthy shifts in a nursing home and two-hour trips between Ohio and Michigan, Baumgardner honed her craft, modelling her style on the ferocity of Mike Tyson.
“I didn’t see any women fighters growing up … but I liked [Tyson’s] aggression, his mindset, even if it came from a toxic background, that breeds a certain type of fighter. I could relate to his lifestyle in a way to keep pushing.”
Mayer also concedes role models were hard to come by growing up, especially in the female game, which is why the legacy of Saturday’s event may not be realised for years to come, with Baumgardner eager to appeal to others from a similar background.
“I’m a woman, a woman of colour, coming out of a small town, I believe that my story, somebody can relate to it,” she says. “It could be how I look, a woman of colour, or just her starting at a young age. It comes with being a professional athlete.
“My goal is to motivate and encourage young fighters, even girls to do what they want to do. I started wrestling, which is male-dominated, but I didn’t allow that to stop me. I knew I was good and kept pushing. I kept that work ethic.”
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Another asset to women’s boxing is what Top Rank promoter Todd DuBoef calls the “whiteboard” effect: how female fighters and power brokers have greater “fluidity” to pursue star-studded match-ups without political roadblocks that often scupper male super fights.
“Firstly it is all about the athletes’ ability to want to fight,” DuBoef says. “We’ve been trying to devalue the loss with our athletes, ‘if I lose this happens… ’. [UFC president] Dana White did a great job of devaluing the loss and we’re getting that message across. This whole undefeated thing is now falling down.”
While the women appear to be more determined to face the very best, Mayer provides a telling reminder of the necessity to take risks given the inferior prize money at stake.
“I’m all about the big fights,” she insists. “But the difference between the men and the women is that the men have the privilege to do what they do because they’re paid so much money.
“We want to get paid and prove a lot to the world. We’re really hungry in that sense. But we can’t take one big fight and enjoy the rest of the year with the money we made.
Slanging match: Mayer and Baumgardner clash at the press conference
“Winning one world title isn’t enough, to make the money you want to make you have to go undisputed. It’s a lot tougher, it’s changing and evolving, that’s the job for the fighters from this era. We have to do more, we’ve always had to do more.”
Mayer emerged victorious from a tremendous battle with Maiva Hamadouche last year, while Baumgardner’s defining moment to this point also came in 2021, after the eye-catching knockout of Terri Harper to capture that prestigious green and gold belt.
Both fighters stand on the cusp of becoming the pound-for-pound queen. While the carrot of a mega-fight with Katie Taylor adds further spice to a fascinating journey for the sport, Saturday’s match-up brings further validation – and a reminder for Baumgardner.
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“It doesn’t matter what your gender is, if you work hard, it’ll be respected one day.”
Mikaela Mayer vs Alycia Baumgardner is live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Arena on Saturday, coverage starts from 7.30pm
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