Banner Night For Trio of Former Olympians: Mikaela Mayer Defends, Virginia Fuchs Debuts, Marlen Esparza Unifies

 

Mikaela Mayer vs. Jennifer Han

With all due respect to Jennifer Han, as both a likeable, respectable person and a former featherweight world champion, the 38-year-old El Paso native found herself on Saturday night in the unenviable position of competing in a title fight that no one asked for and she didn’t necessarily deserve for the second time in seven months.

Last summer, Katie Taylor teased a big announcement for her next undisputed lightweight title defense which led fight fans to naturally speculate that this might finally be the news we had all been waiting for regarding Amanda Serrano. At the very least, a rematch with either Natasha Jonas or Jessica McCaskill. But Jennifer Han?

Having relinquished her IBF featherweight crown in 2018 to step away from boxing and start a family, Han impressively shed about 80 pounds in baby weight to embark upon a comeback in February 2020 which hit the skids soon after thanks to the global Covid lockdown. Nevertheless, she lobbied the IBF to install her as their number one lightweight contender, which is exactly what they proceeded to do, and Taylor’s team surprised everyone by reaching out to offer Jennifer an unlikely shot at the Bray Bomber’s collection of 135-pound belts in September. Katie dominated Han, dropping her in the eighth round, cruising to a predictably easy victory.

Two months after the Taylor/Han mismatch, super-featherweights Mikaela Mayer, Maiva Hamadouche, and Alycia Baumgardner combined to make November a month to remember. WBO champion Mayer and then-IBF titleholder Hamadouche exchanged nearly 1,500 punches in the course of their Fight of the Year unification on November 5 which saw Mikaela emerge victorious and bring both belts, in addition to the inaugural Ring magazine strap, home to Colorado.

Eight days later, Alycia Baumgardner turned the division on its head by pulling off a stunning upset over Terri Harper, battering the defending and heavily favored WBC/IBO world champion into submission inside of four rounds. Prior to this shocking turn of events, Harper and Mikaela Mayer had been locked on one another’s radar, set on a collision course to eventually consolidate their titles in a scuffle countless boxing enthusiasts were eager to see in 2022.

But Baumgardner had unthinkably knocked off the top dog and began barking at Mayer almost immediately. This was now the 130-pound scrap at the very top of everyone’s wish list, and it seemed as though the combatants themselves were more than happy to oblige. Challenges and insults flew back and forth for months, the animosity between Mayer and Baumgardner flaring up at the same rate as the public’s anticipation.

In late February, Bob Arum was set to reveal the opponent for Mikaela’s springtime fight, and fans held their breath for what we all believed to be the inevitable mention of Alycia Baumgardner. Only to hear the name of Jennifer Han summoned once again. The collective sigh of disappointment was surely audible across the globe.

Just to reiterate, I have no axe to grind with Han herself. It’s this pair of inexplicable world title opportunities that I can’t help but take issue with. If anything, and I don't mean to come across as patronizing, I feel sorry to see Han relegated to stepping stone status. You can hardly blame Jennifer for answering when opportunity knocks at her door, even if it is twice in fairly rapid succession, and without preamble like a title eliminator or tune-up. For what it's worth, Mayer and Baumgardner have both been engaged in playing the blame game with one another over why their fight hasn't happened yet. 

Ultimately, it boils down to the promoters, matchmakers, and sanctioning bodies as the parties that need to be put under the microscope for business practices that all too often defy logic and mock the very concept of credibility. Try as I might, and have struggled to do so for decades, I can’t even begin to understand the machinations of the fight game, much less reconcile the skullduggery carried out by its savvy yet less than virtuous participants. Nevertheless, I can’t stay away and am therefore obliged to call it as I see it.

What I saw in Saturday’s main event, broadcast live on ESPN from The Hangar in Costa Mesa, California was homecoming queen Mikaela Mayer doing what needed to be done to take care of business the way she knows best against a rugged and skilled opponent. She continues to evolve as a fighter, exhibiting different, deeper dimensions to her style in each consecutive outing whether it is as a toe-to-toe slugger or a more kinetic, technically-sound stick and move artist with a great jab and body attack. 

We saw a little of everything from Mayer last night as she methodically worked over and broke down Jennifer Han with a grim determination, fantastic punch selection, and the zen-like ability to ignore the cut over her left eye which came courtesy of a Han right hand early in the first round.     

Han was indeed a tough customer, surviving to the final bell, as she did against Katie Taylor, despite more than her share of anxious moments, particularly in the eighth round when it seemed as though Mayer would get the stoppage she was trying for. Two scorecards had Mikaela winning by shutout while one judge awarded a lone round to the challenger. Mayer's loving but always pragmatic coach, Al Mitchell, graded her performance a B+ while opining that she may have been pushing too hard for a knockout which Mikaela says she would have gotten had the rounds been three minutes long, a rule change for which she is a staunch supporter. 

Two days out from fight night came the news that Mayer had re-signed with Top Rank, reportedly a three-year contract extension worth seven figures. This despite Bob Arum’s recent comments regarding the April 30 Katie Taylor/Amanda Serrano mega-bout at Madison Square Garden being scheduled on the same night as the Shakur Stevenson/Oscar Valdez showdown that he is putting on. 

“You know, whatever reason it is, people don’t particularly pay attention to the women’s fights,” declared the 90-year-old promoter in February. “The answer is ESPN made the schedule and they couldn’t care less. I don’t want to denigrate fights, I don’t want to be accused of being anti-women in sports, but I’m telling you, this is like the Premier League against women’s football.”

Many women’s boxing fans, myself included, were curious to know what Mayer’s opinion might have been upon hearing these ignorant remarks emanating from the antiquated blowhard who just so happens to sign her paychecks. Whatever her thoughts and feelings are, Mikaela has opted to keep them to herself and remain under the Top Rank banner.

Like I was saying earlier, there are just certain things about boxing that I can’t fathom for the life of me. But when it comes right down to it, the hurt business is exactly that—a business. It doesn’t have to make any sense. It just has to make plenty of dollars and cents.

Following her triumphant homecoming, Mikaela Mayer insisted that she, like the rest of us, is patiently sitting by for news of a unification fight with either Hyun-Mi Choi or Alycia Baumgardner. If neither of those happen, she will gladly take on the winner between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. In the meantime, Baumgardner will make the maiden defense of her newly-won WBC and IBO belts against former world featherweight champion Edith Soledad Matthysee (17-11-1, 1 KO) in Manchester, England this coming Saturday. And now we wait.  

 

Virginia Fuchs vs. Randee Lynn Morales

The undercard’s opening preliminary attraction saw Mikaela Mayer’s best friend and longtime amateur teammate Virginia Fuchs make her first ring walk as a professional to take on kickboxer turned prizefighter Randee Lynn Morales (4-3, 2 KOs).   

Morales came into Costa Mesa hot off a first-round knockout of Salina Jordan in her previous fight just five weeks before and was looking to play the spoiler. That was not the case, however, as Ginny decked Morales in the opening frame before stopping Randee on her feet in the fourth and final round with a series of unanswered punches which prompted referee Jerry Cantu to intervene and wave off the fight.    

Racking up a stellar 88 wins spanning nearly a full decade on the novice circuit, Fuchs had worked her way up to the esteemed position of Team USA Captain long before she qualified for last summer’s Tokyo Olympics in the flyweight division. Virginia defeated Russia’s Svetlana Soluianova in the opening bracket, but fell on points to Stoyka Krasteva of Bulgaria and was eliminated from competition in the round of sixteen.

The 34-year-old rookie is also an advocate for mental health awareness and erasing the stigma attached to it. Fuchs has been very open about the fact that boxing has helped her tremendously as a positive avenue through which to channel her own ongoing battle with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

Seven of Ginny’s 110 amateur bouts were contested against former teammate, fellow Houstonian, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, and, as of last night, current WBC/WBA and Ring magazine world flyweight champion Marlen Esparza, courtesy of her unanimous decision win in a title unification against Naoko Fujioka at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Marlen got the better of Fuchs back in the day by a five to two margin, and you better believe Ginny has her sights set on a not too distant future shot at redemption, as well as Esparza’s world championship belts.    

 

Marlen Esparza vs. Naoko Fujioka      

After surviving a first-round knockdown to edge out a unanimous decision over then-reigning WBC flyweight champion Ibeth Zamora Silva last June to claim her first world title, Esparza successfully defended the green and gold in decisive fashion against Anabel Ortiz, flooring the former WBA minimumweight world champion twice in the process.   

Unifying her WBC world flyweight title with the WBA belt held since 2017 by Naoko Fujioka, not to mention claiming possession of the inaugural 112-pound Ring magazine belt, was Marlen Esparza’s commendable attempt at giving people a modernized way in which to remember the Alamo. Certainly a more fitting tribute to the tragic and heroic resistance that occurred there during the 1836 Texas Revolution than, say, a drunken Ozzy Osbourne emptying his vodka-filled bladder on the Alamo Plaza’s Cenotaph monument in 1982, the fortieth anniversary of which was just two months ago. 

Charging out of her corner, Esparza quickly took the fight to the 46-year-old Japanese legend but paid a price for her recklessness by eating a hard overhand right moments into the proceedings. Marlen took it well and returned the favor soon after. Fujioka prides herself on being an aggressor, therefore the bout would remain an intense pressure cooker throughout. 

Esparza landed a clean left hook in the second and followed it up with another, buckling Fujioka's knees. Having gotten her opponent's timing down by the third round, Esparza settled down somewhat and relied on creating distance with the jab, allowing her the proper space in which to beat Fujioka to the punch with impactful counters. Marlen dodged a body shot midway through the fourth which caused Fujioka to faceplant onto the canvas, rightfully ruled a slip by referee Rafael Ramos. 

The pace picked up once more as the fighters squared up and teed off from close quarters, exchanging a good deal of body blows during the furious infighting. Fujioka swung the momentum in her direction in the middle rounds, tiring out Esparza with her relentlessness and roughhouse tactics. A straight right from Fujioka thrown during the course of a frantic back and forth caused Esparza to take a few unsteady steps backward, making one wonder how differently things might have played out if she possessed more natural power. 

Nevertheless, the Japanese warrior was forcing Marlen to adapt to her style of fighting and, like it or not, Esparza had little choice but to comply and make whatever improvisational adjustments were necessary to hang in there with her. Employing great use of her upper body movement to pivot away from some of Fujioka's punches went a long way toward preserving her survival.

With the decision hanging in the balance, Esparza edged out the eighth round with a picture-perfect right/left combination before catching an incoming Naoko with a clubbing right hook late in the eighth round that stopped Fujioka in her tracks. Stumbling forward with her head up and chin exposed, Naoko then absorbed a left hook moments later.  

Fists were flying with a rapid desperation in round ten as both fighters pushed themselves well past the limits of physical exhaustion in the hopes of making a decisive closing argument. Esparza did her part by backing Fujioka into the ropes with a right hook and once again caught her coming in with another well-timed counter. Marlen got the last word in with an overhand right as the ten-second warning sounded, cementing a hard-fought victory which was far closer than the scorecards would have you believe. 

How in the world Wilfredo Esperon and Jesse Reyes saw fit to award every round to Esparza is beyond me. They should both have their licenses revoked for that kind of chicanery. Lisa Giampa was much more on the mark with her 97-93 tally in favor of the now unified WBC/WBA and Ring magazine flyweight champion, Marlen Esparza.     

However begrudgingly, even Marlen's arch rival Seniesa Estrada, who provided commentary on the bout for DAZN, had to admit that it was "a big win for Esparza." All told, it was a big night for Marlen Esparza, Virginia Fuchs, and Mikaela Mayer, three former amateur teammates and Olympians who are now carving out a comfortable niche for themselves at the professional level with bigger and better accomplishments to come, no doubt.

Savannah Marshall Sends Emphatic Message to Claressa Shields With One-Punch KO of Femke Hermans

 

“Femke going to give you so much hell,” Claressa Shields screamed in Savannah Marshall’s face during the heated confrontation that occurred between the two at ringside right after Shields’ middleweight title defense against Ema Kozin back in February.  

Claressa had pitched a shutout against Femke Hermans in December 2018, easily retaining her WBC, WBA, and IBF middleweight belts in the process, and was brazenly predicting in her own unique way that her former challenger would make Marshall look like the “bum” and “cherry picker” Shields believes her to be.

One of their common opponents, Hannah Rankin, who went the distance with Shields in 2018 and was stopped by Marshall two Halloweens ago, offered her opinion on the matter in a much more contrite fashion, stating that Hermans (12-3, 5 KOs) represented a “step up” and “good test” for Marshall in her quest to topple Claressa Shields for the second time, and unify the 160-pound division while she’s at it.

Since losing back to back fights, to Shields and then Elin Cederroos in a clash for the vacant IBF super-middleweight title (Hermans’ one other career defeat came at the hands of Alicia Napoleon Espinosa for the vacant WBA super-middleweight belt in March 2018), Femke rebounded with a hat trick of victorious outings. It should be taken under consideration, however, that the combined records of these three vanquished adversaries was a highly dubious 15-63-4, with 43-year-old Bulgarian Borislava Goronova somehow accounting for an inconceivable 62 of those losses all by herself.

In the course of a very busy 2018, Hermans did outpoint Nikki Adler to claim short-term ownership of the WBO super-middleweight title now in the possession of Franchon Crews Dezurn. On Saturday evening in Newcastle, Savannah Marshall was putting her 160-pound WBO crown on the line in a long overdue bout with Hermans.

First scheduled for last April 21, Hermans contracted Covid and was replaced by Maria Lindberg on short notice. It was then marked on the calendar for December, the same night as Claressa Shields’ UK debut against Ema Kozin, as a sort of double-feature coming attraction to the inevitable Shields/Marshall grudge match. This time it was Marshall who had to bow out, due to a badly bruised hand suffered during her second-round TKO of Lolita Muzeya two months prior. A new date penciled in for last month was also scrapped when a member of Femke’s camp tested positive for Covid. Such is the way of the world these days.

Going back to where we began with Claressa Shields’ insult to Marshall using Femke as a surrogate, just how much hell exactly would Hermans give Savannah in Newcastle? The answer was, not a whole hell of a lot actually. As in not much whatsoever. 

Marshall was prepared to go for the long haul with Hermans, but she put an unexpectedly early end to what turned out to be a moderate to casual jaunt through hell. A straight right from Marshall late in the third round caused Femke to stumble backwards the full length of the ring. Savannah stalked her injured prey, now trapped helplessly in a corner, and threw another right which Hermans still had the wherewithal to slip. Just as she stood straight up again, Femke's exposed chin was clobbered by a Marshall left hook. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was all she wrote. Hermans hit the deck and referee Howard Foster waved the fight off without a moment's hesitation or the academic formality of a ten-count over the fallen Belgian who was stopped for the first time in her career. Savannah, meanwhile, took a brief victory lap during which she pointed at Claressa Shields at ringside. “You're next, you daft cow,” she called out, laughing later that Claressa must have dropped something because she was looking down at the floor.

Moments later, however, Shields broke past the security perimeter to climb into the ring and exchange unpleasantries with her arch rival, which we all knew was coming. No one thought to enter the fray with a microphone, so their spirited back and forth was inaudible unlike the last. When asked in her dressing room what was said between the two, Savannah joked that Claressa was begging her not to knock her out like that. 

The outcome of their grudge match obviously remains to be seen, although both fighters and their many faithful fans have strong opinions on the matter one way or the other. Hopefully we don't have long to wait for the score to be settled, as negotiations have been under way for some time now to bring this feverishly anticipated bout to the UK this Summer.   

The Marshall/Hermans undercard in Newcastle featured a trio of female fights, the first of which saw flyweight Chloe Watson, a 2017 Commonwealth Youth Champion, improve her pro record to 2-0 with a four-round decision over Gemma Ruegg, who dropped to 1-3 with the loss. Similarly, Georgia O'Connor, a 22-year-old decorated amateur and current super-welterweight prospect, won her second professional prizefight by outpointing Argentina's Erica Juana Gabriela Alvarez. After losing her first pro bout to Kirstie Bayington last October, April Hunter (now 5-1) got back in the win column Saturday night with a confidence-building victory over 1-14-1 Ester Konecna in a six-round welterweight scrap.