Mikaela Mayer has landed in England ahead of her contest in Birmingham this weekend with Chantelle Cameron. There is no animosity between the pair, but it is an important fight, with Mayer looking towards future bouts against the likes of Lauren Price and Claressa Shields. We spoke a couple of days before she flew to the UK.
Mikaela, thanks for making the time to do it before you come over.
Is Chantelle someone who’s been on your radar for a while?
Yeah, for sure. We’ve stayed cool throughout the years because we knew each other from the amateurs. So she was fighting at 140 and I was at 47 at this time. And we’ve talked and she said she was going to come up to ‘47.
And we always thought, ‘Okay, we’ll probably eventually have to get in the ring together. But we always thought that would be a great fight for the sport.’
But there’s no bad blood with you guys?
No. No, we’re cool.
I mean, like the first media day we had with MVP, we had to do a million face-offs. We had to fly to Orlando, do a million face-offs and a bunch of media stuff. We hung out the whole time.
I told them, I was like, ‘This can never happen with an opponent I have a rivalry with. Okay, you guys get like one or two face-offs max.’ So we must have done 100.
So it’s cool. You know, it is what it is. We’ve both had similar careers, we have kind of that same kind of mentality when it comes to fighting and wanting to get in there and fight the best, and we have similar come-forward styles, aggressive, high work-rate.
So I think it’s a perfect matchup.
I suppose, what you say about fighting the best, you guys have been rewarded for fighting the best, not just with a fight with each other, but you’re in a position now, Mikaela, where even if you take an L, it doesn’t really matter because you’re a well-known commodity in the sport, right? Like there’s value attached to you. It takes a while to get to that position though, doesn’t it? Because obviously so many people are written off after a loss, but when you get to that level, it doesn’t really matter if you win or lose a few, you’re still a big name.
Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting that you say that because sometimes it’s like the first loss… to go undefeated, and then the first loss will really kind of matter. And the second loss, people are like, ‘Oh my God,’ and then you make your way back again. And yeah, I guess you’re kind of right.
I’m sort of solidified in this sport, and Cameron is as well, right? So I think we’re both well-respected and whoever does come out the loser in this fight will probably still get fights, but I don’t care. I don’t want another loss on my record. It is too hard emotionally, mentally to get through.
I believe I’m at the best I’ve ever been. And so I just don’t see that happening for me, but yeah. Yeah, no, I don’t want that again.
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By the way, we talked about you and Chantelle being okay with one another. You’ve had some prickly opponents the last couple of years, haven’t you? There’s been some back and forth. Do you prefer this when you’re getting along or do you like the fact that you’ve got to get nasty with a couple of people?
No, I just want it to be authentic, right? Like I don’t want to build a rivalry against someone where there is none really, you know? And so me and Chantelle, we don’t have that.
She’s not that type of personality. That personality comes out of me when I have someone I really do have something to say to, and with Chantelle, I respect her.
I respect the hustle and the willingness to fight the best. And so I think we don’t need the rivalry, fortunately, with our skill and how we’re both kind of at the top of our game. We’re both well respected in the sport.
We both have really exciting styles. I don’t think we need the rivalry. I think that our skill and the fight will just sell itself.
When you talk about how hard it’s been to get over a loss in the past, does that mean that there’s been times where you have thought, like, this is just… now it’s time to walk away, like you don’t want to do it again?
No, I mean, I’ve had moments where I’m like, ‘Oh, how many more camps can I do?’ But it has never been when I was sort of down and out or coming off a loss, like those are the moments, even though I was probably mentally not 100 per cent and feeling it. I just continued to show up because I knew I had to get back. But in those moments I never felt like maybe I should just hang it up.
No, that was not an option for me, to go out like that.
Was that in part just down to yourself and how you felt, or was it in part down to your environment? Because I know we’ve got a mutual friend in Trudy [Nevins] at DLX and I know that you guys are super close. Is it partly the fact that you surround yourself with the right people who are always picking you up and supporting you?
Yeah, I’ve said that. Anytime someone asks, ‘What’s your advice to the younger generation?’ it’s, one, get yourself a good team. Surround yourself with a team that you can trust and ride the waves with because a team will make or break you.
And I’ve always said that I’ve been very lucky. I’ve pretty much been with the same team my entire career, minus that one little hiccup with Sandy [Ryan]’s coach. But for the most part, I have to take credit and pat myself on the back for always making sure I’ve surrounded myself and attracted the good people into my life.
And when there wasn’t a good situation, I made moves to correct it and I adjusted. So I think that’s really important. And yeah, because when I was down and out, I just hear a lot of fighters where their team just kind of disappears and kind of checks out, right? Mine didn’t.
Coach Al [Mitchell] called me weekly to check on me and told me, ‘We’ll get back on top, everything will be okay.’ And same with my manager. They all felt the loss like I did.
They’ll say to you that it hurt them like they lost, too. So they definitely helped kind of navigate me back. They were the strength and I couldn’t even think about what was next.
So much of Chantelle’s reputation comes from the two fights she had with Katie Taylor. Obviously, I know there’s more to her than that, but she blew up after that first fight. Is it going to be a regret of yours that you and Katie never got to fight?
Oh, yeah, of course. I always thought we would fight and I always wanted that fight. And I think I just assumed it would always happen. And so I also knew that Katie was sort of in the driver’s seat when it came to who she wanted to fight.
And so it was like, ‘Oh, no, it’ll happen down the road, but it’ll happen when it’s time, when Katie seeks me out or something like that.’ I don’t know, but I think, ultimately, I probably stayed at 130 a little bit too long and missed that Katie train, because when I finally moved up to 135 and I won the interim belt, they told me I would be mandatory for the winner of Taylor-Serrano, except they had a trilogy. So when I heard that, I was like, ‘Cool.’
But then when I heard the rematches were happening [with Taylor and Serrano], I was like, ‘I’m not going to sit around and wait. I don’t have the time. I’m going to continue on.’
And that’s when I got the fight against [Natasha] Jonas.
Were you in the frame for this September 5 date? I saw your name bandied around a little bit.
Did anyone come to you for Katie in this Croke Park fight?
No, I was sitting out, crossing my fingers like everyone else. I would have loved to get that call. But, you know, that would have been pretty, pretty ballsy of Katie.
I feel like I’m in my prime. I’ve had some really great fights the last few fights and this is her last fight. So I wasn’t sure that she’d want to take on someone like me.
And again, I know that she sort of had the privilege to kind of decide who she wanted to fight. So I was crossing my fingers, but I was realistic about it.
