Mikaela Mayer vs Sandy Ryan Photo Mikey Williams Top Rank
Saturday night – two-weight champ Mikaela Mayer defended her WBO welterweight world title against former champion Sandy Ryan in the BleauLive Theater at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.
Mayer (21-2, 5 KOs) beat Ryan (7-3-1, 3 KOs) via SD last September. The first fight had fans calling for a rematch.
The last fight saw lots of pre-fight taunting and bad blood, creating even more interest in the rematch.
Before the fight, both girls seemed locked in and confident of victory Saturday night.
“I’m sure she feels that she will stop me. I’m sure she felt that way in the last fight when she was saying that I’m not truly a welterweight”, said Mayer. “I still sent her to the hospital with a concussion. If I did that then when I was new to welterweight, then I’m going to hurt her 10 times more this time around”, she predicted.
Britain’s Ryan seemed just as confident, “I’ll be taking that belt back. I know that I’m a fighter. I let people see what kind of person and fighter I am”, she said. Confidence can get you only so far.
But in the main event, they let their fists do the talking.
Mayer took the offensive stance throughout the fight throwing hard punches to the head and body. Ryan looked to land counters, but it never deterred champion Mayer, who continued to press. Ryan was nothing if not tough but she simply couldn’t keep up with the non-stop combinations of Mayer. Both fighters landed some strong shots in the 2nd half of the fight, but as had been the case through the fight, Mayer stayed busy in every round.
A cut in the corner of Mayer’s left eye was a target for Ryan in the last 2 rounds, but Mayer weathered the storm. Both fighters left nothing in the tank and it was bombs away in the last round. In the end, a busier Mayer won the fight via UD 10 with scores of 97-93 x 2 and 98-92. Fight fans would welcome a 3rd go.
WBO world welterweight title – In the co-feature, Brian Norman Jr. (27- 0, 21 KOs) was making the first defence of his WBO welterweight world championship against tough Puerto Rican challenger Derrieck Cuevas (27-2- 1, 19 KOs). Cuevas, game and tough, just couldn’t match the skill set of the faster and more accurate champion. A right / left in the 3rd was the finish after landing many hard shots in the first 2 rounds.Norman TKO 3.
Under Card
Featherweight WBC Eliminator Bruce Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) TKO 3 Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4, 12 KOs)
Junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) KO2 Giovannie Gonzalez (20-8-2, 15 KOs)
Welterweight Tiger Johnson (15-0, 7 KOs) TKO 5 Kendo Castaneda (21-9, 9 KOs)
Junior lightweight Dedrick Crocklem (2-0, 2 KOs) TKO 1 Dionne Ruvalcaba (2-2, 1 KOs)
Bantamweight Emanuel Chance (1-0) WUD 4 Miguel Guzman (1–1,1 KO)
