By: Sean Crose
“The fight was a banger.” So wrote Boxing Insider after Mikaela Mayer won the WBO welterweight title off Sandy Ryan. The 2024 fight, however, came with a large degree of controversy. Ryan was attacked by having paint tossed on her mere hours before the opening bell. The fighter was subsequently and understandably rattled, a fact which has led to the argument that Ryan wasn’t herself in the bout. Such a critique is enough to raise eyebrows when one realizes Ryan only lost to Mayer that night by by majority decision.
A rematch was clearly in order. And that rematch went down Saturday night in Los Vegas. Suffice to say, there was a great deal of animosity between the two combatants beforehand. “I’m going to put her in the hospital, like the last time.” Mayer hissed in the lead up to the battle. The question Saturday was not only who would win, but would the rematch be as exciting as the first fight had been? The bout was set for 10 two minutes rounds and was the main event of a Top Rank Promotions’ card broadcast live on ESPN.
The first round was a close and fairly exciting chapter that saw Mayer land effectively. Ryan, however, landed well in the second. Mayer dominated the third with combinations. Ryan landed solid shots to be sure, but she was considerably outworked by the defending champion. Mayer went on to simply control the fourth. Ryan clearly needed to be more active. Mayer chopped away with solid shots in the fifth round. By the halfway point of the fight, it was obvious that Mayer was on the verge of pulling away from the game Ryan.
The sixth round saw Ryan begin to work the body. Would the strategy end up paying off? If the seventh was any indication it just might. For the challenger dug deep and landed hard during the course of the round. Mayer was cut in the gruelling eighth round courtesy of an accidental head butt. Ryan thudded away at Mayer in the ninth, though it had to be said that Mayer got in good shots of her own.
What’s more, Mayer rocked Ryan at the start of the tenth and final round. Both women proceeded to slog it out for the rest of the chapter. It had been a close fight, but not so close that people could say Ryan got robbed when the judges gave the win to Mayer via unanimous decision.
