Notebook: Mayer, Jonas desire to fight the best leads to showdown
2023 BWAA award winners unveiled; Serrano thrilled for homecoming main event; BetUS show; Quick hits; Show and tell
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If Mikaela Mayer had her way the former unified junior lightweight titlist would have moved up to lightweight for a shot at undisputed women’s champion Katie Taylor, for whom she had become a mandatory challenger.
If she couldn’t get that fight quickly, Mayer would have been pleased to rise to junior welterweight and challenge then-undisputed champion Chantelle Cameron. But she wasn’t available either as she became involved in back-to-back fights with Taylor.
“So, it was like where can I get this opportunity,” Mayer said recently to Fight Freaks Unite about getting another shot at a world title. “Then (promoter) Top Rank called and said, ‘what about jumping to 147 and there’s an opportunity to fight Natasha Jonas?’ I said OK.”
With the prospect of challenging Jonas in front of her, Mayer, who had moved up to 135 pounds after losing her belts via debatable one-point split decision in a three-belt unification fight against Alycia Baumgardner, routed Lucy Wildheart last April. Then Mayer signed for a fight at 142 pounds as she continued to build up her body and shut out Silvia Bortot in September.
Jonas was ringside and knew a fight with Mayer like was next — and indeed it is.
Mayer, now all the way up at welterweight, will challenge Jonas for her IBF 147-pound world title in the main event of the Boxxer card on Saturday (ESPN+ in U.S., 2 p.m. ET, Sky Sports in U.K.) at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England, Jonas’ hometown.
“I thought eventually I’d wind up at 147, I just didn’t think I’d jump there so quickly,” Mayer said. “Chantelle Cameron wasn’t available at 140, Taylor wasn’t available a 135. (Jonas) was just the most immediate (title) fight for me.”
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Make sure to check out the 2023 Fight Freaks Unite award stories
Mayer said as soon as she lost her 130-pound belt she knew she would move up in weight.
“I’m letting my body fill out and I’m fighting at a more natural weight and putting on muscle,” Mayer said. “I stayed at 130 for 15 years (pro and amateur). It’s time for me to fill out and I feel great. Just letting my body fill out the tiniest bit, it wanted to keep going. 135 was no different to 130 to me.”
The fight will be Mayer’s fourth in a row in England, although her previous opponents there were not British. Jonas is and she is beloved.
“This is my first Brit and in her hometown so that’s new for me,” Mayer said. “I’ve always been on the A side, I think. Now, I’m going to enemy territory and I know they go hard for their people. Natasha Jonas is very well respected.”
Jonas (14-2-1, 9 KOs), 39, a southpaw, was a 2012 British Olympian, getting ousted from the tournament by Ireland’s Taylor in her second bout. As a pro, she has fought most of her career at junior lightweight and lightweight but in 2022 moved up to junior middleweight. In three consecutive fights she unified three world titles before dropping down to welterweight, where she battered and bloodied Kandi Wyatt in the eighth round in July to win the vacant IBF title she will defend for the first time against Mayer (19-1, 5 KOs), 33, a 2016 Olympian from Los Angeles.
The bout, which was easy to make, matches two of the best in women’s boxing, something not lost on either of them.
“This is a big statement. We’ve seen so many times that the best don’t fight the best for whatever reason, but I believe that for me to classify myself as one of the best of this era, I have to fight the best,” Jonas said at Thursday’s news conference. “I look at some of the boxers on the list, the Katie Taylors and Chantelle Camerons, and they’ve beaten people in the top 10 pound-for-pound list. For me to be able to solidify a legacy for myself, I believe I have to do the same, and Mikaela is on that list.
“It’s going to be a good fight. We’ve both got the IQ and the ability to box. We’ve both got the skill and the strength to fight if we need to. That being said, I think our styles will make a great fight.”
Said Mayer: “It’s not just about the belt. It’s not just about becoming a world champion again. It’s about challenging myself against the best, having those names on my resume and knowing that I did my absolute best to challenge myself against the other great girls in the sport so that I can truly say I’m a top pound-for-pound fighter of this era.
“That’s important for my legacy and for my fans because I know that these are the types of fights that they want to see.”
In the co-feature, British and Commonwealth super middleweight champion Jack Cullen (22-4-1, 10 KOs), 30, will defend against Zak Chelli (14-2-1, 7 KOs), 26, in a rematch of their 2020 all-action 10-rounder that ended in a split draw.
BWAA 2023 award winners
The Boxing Writers Association of America announced the winners of its annual awards for 2023 on Friday. All award winners, as voted on by BWAA members, will be honored in the spring at the annual banquet on a date to be determined, usually a night or two before a major fight.
Sugar Ray Robinson Fighter of the Year: Naoya Inoue, who vacated the undisputed bantamweight title and moved up to junior featherweight, knocked out Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales to unify the division and become its first four-belt undisputed champion. He also joined fellow nominee Terence Crawford as the only males to become four-belt undisputed champion in two divisions.
Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) is the first Japanese fighter to win the prestigious honor in the 85-year history of the award.
“This is a great honor for me, because all of the writers from the United State and around the world voted for me,” Inoue said. “That means a lot to have my performances recognized in the United States, even though I was fighting in Japan.”
Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier Fight of the Year: Jaime Munguia W12 Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
Eddie Futch Trainer of the Year: Brian McIntyre won for his work with Crawford, who he guided to a massive and dominating win over Errol Spence Jr. to unify the welterweight division in the most significant fight of 2023 and he trained Chris Eubank Jr. to a knockout win over Liam Smith in their rematch after coming on board after Smith knocked him out in their first fight.
Cus D’Amato Manager of the Year: Bill Haney claimed the award for maneuvering son Devin Haney into two lucrative pay-per-view fights, a decision win over Vasiliy Lomachenko to retain the undisputed lightweight title followed by free agency and a rout of Regis Prograis to win the WBC junior welterweight title.
Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award: Trainer John Scully, the former light heavyweight contender.
Sam Taub Excellence in Broadcast Award: ESPN analyst Timothy Bradley Jr., the former two-division champion.
Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service: Gordon Hall, the longtime Showtime Sports senior vice president and executive producer of “ShoBox: The New Generation,” the prospect show he nurtured from Day 1.
John McCain-Bill Crawford Courage Award: It was a tie between Lisa McClellan, the full-time caregiver to her fight-injured brother and former middleweight titlist Gerald McClellan, and renowned photographer Ed Mulholland, who overcame a bout with cancer.
The following awards are not voted on by the full membership but by separate committees:
Christy Martin Female Fighter of the Tear: Unified featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.
A.J. Liebling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing: International Boxing Hall of Famer Thomas Hauser.
Nat Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism: Hall of Famer Nigel Collins, the former longtime editor of The Ring magazine. This award is voted on only by past winners.
Serrano-Meinke kickoff presser
Unified women’s featherweight champion Amanda Serrano is deeply appreciative to her promoter, Jake Paul of Most Valuable Promotions, that when they share an upcoming card, as they have done before, he insisted that this time she take the spotlight in the main event.
She will do just that when she defends her three belts against IBF mandatory challenger and fellow southpaw Nina Meinke (18-3, 4 KOs), 30, of Germany, at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan on March 2 (DAZN).
“I’m used to performing, going out and sitting and watching Jake perform. Now it’s the opposite,” Serrano said on Thursday when she and Meinke met face to face at the kickoff news conference in San Juan. “I don’t mind being co-main event, and he said there’s no way in the world that he was going to be the main event. This is my Island. So I’m truly thankful for this opportunity. But it’s going to be kind of weird because it’s not only Jake that’s fighting.”
The card also will feature fighters such as junior flyweight titlist Jonathan Gonzalez, who Serrano trains with, and junior bantamweight Krystal Rosado, who she manages.
“I have to watch all those fights before my fight,” Serrano said. “So, I’m gonna be a nervous wreck in the locker room, but I’m gonna be ready to go out there and perform.”
Paul’s opponent has not yet been announced for his eight-round cruiserweight co-feature, but he will face a second full-time boxer in a row, as opposed to an MMA fighter coming into boxing as he has often done.
Although Serrano (46-2-1, 30 KOs), 35, lived for many years in Brooklyn, New York, she has resumed living in her native Puerto Rico and excited to fight on the island for the first time since 2021 and second time since 2017.
“Pinch me. It’s so surreal looking around and to be back at home as the main event,” Serrano said. “I am super honored. Thank you so much to MVP for putting on an amazing show and for putting me as the main event with Jake Paul as co-main event. He’s such a gentleman that he said, ‘This is your island,’ so he’s given me the opportunity and I’m super excited to be here, to have an amazing opponent, to come out and showcase women’s boxing once again. It’s going to be a beautiful night here in Puerto Rico.”
The fight with Meinke will once again be the rare women’s title fight scheduled for 12 three-minute rounds, something Serrano insists on now. She even recently gave up the WBC title, thus ending her status as the undisputed champion, because the organization won’t sanction women’s title fights that are not the female standard of 10 two-minute rounds.
“That definitely wasn’t a very easy decision for me. You know I worked so hard for all these belts, all these titles,” Serrano said. “And so to give something up that you really love and work hard for, it hurts. But if you believe in something you have to take a stand. I believe that women need equality. The first step was performing and succeeding and doing the 12 three-minute rounds. And I think I just needed to do what I had to do. All these other organizations are supporting me 100 percent. So I believe in it and I took the stand and hopefully the WBC will come around one day.”
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked two fights, Natasha Jones’ IBF women’s welterweight title defense against Mikaela Mayer on Saturday in Liverpool, England and Kenshiro Teraji’s defense of the unified WBC/WBA junior flyweight title against Carlos Canizales on Tuesday in Osaka, Japan. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Quick hits
Weights from Liverpool, England, for Saturday’s Boxxer card on ESPN+ (2 p.m. ET): Natasha Jonas 146 pounds, Mikaela Mayer 146.3 (for Jonas’ IBF women’s welterweight title); Jack Cullen 167.3, Zak Chelli 166.3 (rematch, for Cullen’s British and Commonwealth super middleweight titles); Karis Artingstall 124.3, Lila dos Santos Furtado 124; Ste Clarke 160, Vasif Mamedov 166.3; Aaron McKenna 168, Mickey Ellison 171.
In a very under the radar result from Jan. 13, longtime heavyweight contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz (34-3, 29 KOs), 44, a Miami-based Cuban defector, returned from a 16-month layoff for first-round knockout of Francisco Cordero (41-19, 32 KOs), 37, of Colombia, in Cartagena, Colombia. Ortiz needed 1 minute, 46 to stop Cordero. It was Ortiz’s first fight since dropping a close decision to former titlist Andy Ruiz Jr. in September 2022. Ortiz’s only other defeats were by knockout challenging then-WBC titleholder Deontay Wilder in 2018 and 2019.
Show and tell
Two fights after Manny Pacquiao fought to a riveting draw in a featherweight championship fight with his greatest rival, Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao moved up to junior lightweight and met his next greatest rival, Erik Morales, for the first bout of their famed trilogy. Morales scored a close decision — 115-113 on all three scorecards — in an all-time classic battle. A little less than a year later they met again in a hugely anticipated rematch. Despite having lost to Morales the first time, Pacquiao was a slight favorite because Morales was coming off a decision loss to Zahir Raheem four months earlier.
In the rematch, which I covered at ringside at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Pacquiao and Morales let it all hang out again in another absolutely electrifying fight, but one Pacquiao took control of after a few rounds with his sheer aggression. He hurt Morales several times before finally knocking him down twice in the 10th round and getting the stoppage. It was the first time Morales had ever been stopped to that point in his Hall of Fame career. Pacquiao would go on to win the trilogy 2-1. The memorable rematch was on Jan. 21, 2006 — 18 years ago on Sunday. Here is one of the two different and extremely limited site posters produced for the fight, both of which had print runs of only 250 apiece, in my collection. I also have one of these signed by both Pacquiao and Morales. Also, here is my credential.
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Photos: Jonas-Mayer: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer; Inoue: Naoki Fukuda; Serrano-Meinke: Jan Nieves/Most Valuable Promotions
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Really cool to see Gordon Hall win the Barney Nagler award for Long and Meritorious Service. The Mad Scientist responsible for the magnificent experiment known as ShoBox is a worthy recipient indeed.
I agree nathan