By: Sean Crose
“My hands have never hurt so bad after a fight,” Mikaela Mayer said Friday night after winning the WBO welterweight title off of Sandy Ryan in a high octane throwdown. Indeed, the fight was a banger. Mayer proved faster and more mobile early on, only to find herself getting tagged by defending champion Ryan as the fight progressed. “It was similar to how I thought it would go,” Mayer told ESPN’s Mark Kriegel in the ring after being awarded the majority decision win by the judges. “She has a big pedigree just like myself, but I knew I was going to beat her to the punch. I knew I was fast. I knew I was sharper…I felt like I won the fight. I’m just glad I got the right decision this time.”
It had been clear in the leadup to the fight that Mayer and Ryan weren’t big fans of each other. Matters took a dark turn before the fight, however, when Ryan was assaulted on a New York City street on her way to Madison Square Garden, where the bout was soon to go down. “Something smashed me in my stomach,” Ryan said to Kriegel before the fight, “and I looked down it was a tin of paint, looked up, a guy with a hood running to a car. Then they drove off.”
Ryan who was fighting for only the second time in the United States, and for the first time in New York, was clearly troubled. “Nothing like this has ever happened,” she said. “Mikaela Mayer is getting it. It’s definitely someone from her team. Why else would it be? It’s got to be. I’m from the UK. Whose going to hit and run me? Who knew what time I was coming out of my hotel to come to the venue? Who knew someone sitting in a hotel saying she’s coming now? They know what time I’m coming out of the venue with my team.”
With that being said, the thirty-three year old remained determined. “Keep throwing things at me,” she said, “because that’s what they’re trying to do.” For her own part, Mayer condemned and denied any involvement with the incident . “I mean obviously that’s crossing the line,” she told Kriegel before the fight. “That’s messed up, so I feel for her. I’m sorry that happened to her. Obviously I had nothing to do with it. I would never do something like that. That’s crossing the line one hundred percent.”
After the fight, Mayer expressed a willingness to have a rematch with Ryan, provided the money and fan interest was right. The 34 claimed her dream is to become undisputed at welterweight. “You’re not going to see me in an easy fight,” Mayer said. “I’m going for the biggest and the best.”
*Images: Top Rank
