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.
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