Mikaela Mayer explains why she signed with Jake Paul after 9 years with Bob Arum’s Top Rank
Despite the influx of high-profile female fighters crossing over to Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions, the acquisition of Mikaela Mayer still felt like a surprise.
Not because of MVP’s interest. After all, signing the No.3-ranked pound-for-pound boxer on the planet further reinforces the upstart promotion’s commitment to developing women’s boxing.
Rather, the surprise stems from Mayer’s exit from Top Rank.
Mayer became synonymous with Bob Arum‘s company during a fruitful nine-year partnership that saw the US Olympian win world titles at super featherweight, welterweight and super welterweight.
She was the first woman to sign with the flagship American promoter in almost two decades and opened the door for many great female fighters to follow in her footsteps.
An extension with Top Rank was placed on the table, but as Mayer, 35, enters the twilight of her career, a move to MVP felt like a necessity.
“There is no bad blood between me and Top Rank. My contract was up,” Mayer told talkSPORT.com.
“Usually, as a champion, they would have automatically got a one-year extension, but they were still in limbo with the TV deal, which gave me the right to look elsewhere.
“The biggest deciding factor with signing with MVP started about a year ago, before the second Sandy [Ryan] fight, when we tried to make a fight with one of their fighters, and they weren’t willing to work with me unless I was signed with them.
“Over the next year, they signed all these girls, and I thought ,’If I don’t sign with them, I am going to get frozen out’.
“They are really cornering the market and I’m not mad at it because they are doing an amazing job.
“I’m in the last leg of my career and I’ve always wanted the biggest fights possible so the last thing I wanted to do was get into a contract where I don’t have access to the biggest and best fights, so that was the deciding factor.
“On top of that, they also have someone like Jake Paul whose really new age and has a totally different way of promoting.
“Then I heard they were signing the deal with ESPN, they have the Netflix opportunities and they’re signing with Sky Sports.
“So the business mind in me told me there was nowhere else to go.”
MVP has 18 active female world champions on its books.
The most significant of those from Mayer’s perspective is bitter rival Alycia Baumgardner, who handed the Los Angeles technician her first defeat in the paid ranks back in 2022.
“The fans deserve the rematch with Baumgardner,” Mayer added.
“It has been a long time and there was a lot of money that was left on the table by not doing that rematch.
“I don’t know if she wants it. MVP did say that it might be a difficult fight to make, and in my mind, that means she doesn’t want the fight, but we will see.
“I can fight from 140lbs to 160lbs so there are a lot of good fights out there for me.”
When and who will Mikaela Mayer fight next?
Mayer is expected to return to the ring sometime in August, with MVP eyeing a massive fight for her promotional debut.
“I’ve heard what they want is for Chantelle Cameron to come up and fight me for my [WBO] 147lbs belt,” Mayer continued.
“I’ve always welcomed a fight with Chantelle. I think that would be great. It could happen at 147lbs or 154lbs.
“For me, if I have to wait until August to fight, I would love to face Lauren Price because she is fighting in April and will be available by then.
“If they can get me Lauren Price for August, I would love that, and then we can throw either Chantelle Cameron or Claressa Shields in there at the end of the year. “
Boxing schedule
For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s boxing schedule.
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