Mikaela Mayer was unexpectedly thrust into main event status and thrived to record a dominant ten round points win at Super Featherweight against Helen Joseph, inside The Bubble at MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
Jamel Herring was due to defend his WBO Super Featherweight title at the top of this bill against Jonathan Oquendo, but the fight was postponed at just a day’s notice with Herring testing positive for COVID-19, for the second time.
The show carried on regardless, in a historic clash which saw the first female main event in Top Rank’s illustrious history.
Mayer (13-0, 5 KOs) tested positive herself for signs of COVID-19, which scuppered her original fight date of June 9, but she returned stronger than ever to impress here.
The 30-year-old had to do it without regular trainer, Al Mitchell who is recovering from Coronavirus, with Manny Robles stepping in to lead the corner.
Mayer landed with a solid right hook in the first 20 seconds of the contest, as the pair exchanged blows.
Joseph (17-5-2, 10 KOs) would wing punches in from a crouched stance, making her a difficult target to pin down, but Mayer was sharp early on and would time Joseph’s punches to land accurate shots of her own.
The Nigerian was constantly coming forward in the early stages, but Mayer was using her ring intelligence to negate Joseph’s attacks.
The former US Olympian was simply telegraphing Joseph, barrelling into her and following her around the ring, and she would fend her opponent off with flashy combination work.
Joseph is aptly nicknamed ‘Iron Lady’ and it was easy to see why, as she continued to come forward and throw shots into the second half of the fight, but Mayer was picking her off on the counter with regularity.
The pair opened up at the end of the seventh, but the 30-year-old, Californian remained one step ahead, landing the greater volume of punches.
Going into the tenth, it was clear that Joseph needed a knockout, and she was told, as much by her trainer ahead of the round and she decided to go for broke.
Again though, she found herself following her foe around the ring, with her punches tired ones whenever she caught up. Mayer was tiring too, but held off the tough 31-year-old with good combinations to take her to the final bell.
The scores were academic in the end and the favourite took two verdicts of 100-90 and a third at 99-91 to remain unbeaten.
“I’m a little offended that people thought that this would be my toughest test to date,” Mayer said post-fight.
“I still have a lot more to show, and I’m the best in my division.
“After the first round, I knew she [Joseph] was slow. I probably didn’t work the body enough, and didn’t show off my jab, but I got the win.”
Promoter, Bob Arum has promised a World title shot next, whilst Mayer will have a close eye on Terri Harper’s WBC Super Featherweight title defence against Natasha Jonas next month.
“Bob said, ‘Great fight,’ and that the next one will be for the title,” Mayer added.
“We’ve been trying to get a world title fight for a while now. I said, ‘Don’t let Eddie Hearn {outbid} us.’”
Former UFC fighter ‘Cassius’ Clay Collard likes a tear up, and began his six rounder against Lorawnt T. Nelson at Middleweight throwing meaty shots.
Nelson (5-4, 4 KOs) was backed up by a hard right hand in the opener, and seconds later, Collard (8-2-3, 3 KOs) put another big right hand over the top, that caused the South African to sag with only the ropes keeping him up and a knockdown was scored.
The 27-year-old went on the attack upon the restart and wasn’t finding Nelson a hard target to hit.
Collard’s right hand was causing mayhem and a well timed, straight right hand dumped Nelson on the canvas again in the first minute of round two.
On the resumption, Nelson was dropped for the third occasion, this time by a cuffing left hand, as the 30-year-old was simply overwhelmed.
It was a matter of time before the finish, and it duly came seconds after another restart.
A flurry of hurtful punches followed, and the referee made a great call in stopping the action, with Nelson having no real chance of victory.
Elsewhere, Javier Martinez (1-0) made his professional debut, outscoring Ryan Burrs (2-2) over four at Middleweight. All three judges scored the clash 40-36 for the former Team USA member.
It was a wild opening to the Lightweight six rounder on the card, as Ruben Cervera (12-2, 10 KOs) decked Clay ‘3rd Degree’ Burns with a left hook with less than ten seconds gone.
Burns (9-9-2, 4 KOs) did force his way back into the contest though, and was unfortunate that the scores of 58-56 and 59-54 (twice) went against him, with the fight a lot closer than the scores suggested.
