Mikaela Mayer doesn’t get the sense that Eddie Hearn is willing to invest heavily in his undisputed female junior lightweight champion.
Mayer, the former unified 130-pound champion from Woodland Hills, Calif., was perplexed by recent comments that Hearn made regarding a potential rematch between Mayer and Hearn’s client Alycia Baumgardner of Michigan, who became the fully unified 130-pound champion after defeating Elhern Mekhaled by unanimous decision last Saturday night at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
After the fight, Hearn suggested to BoxingScene.com that the only way a rematch could be made is if Top Rank, Mayer’s promoter, reached out to him with a lucrative offer to stage that fight. Baumgardner bested Mayer narrowly on points in their highly regarded prizefight last October in London that was co-promoted by Top Rank and streamed on ESPN+.
“This is after the first fight, and I said, ‘Make us an offer,” Hearn said, referring to Top Rank. “And it better be a massive offer, with plenty of zeroes on it.’ And it never came. Lots and lots of zeroes, you know? And it never came, so they can’t want it that bad, because if they, you know, and we would entertain a rematch.”
Mayer, however, feels it should be the other way around, that the promoter of the undisputed champion should be the one making an offer to her, the challenger, and her team. Hearn’s Matchroom has an output deal with DAZN. Mayer’s sense is that Hearn would be fine allowing Baumgardner to fight on a rival promoter’s platform, so long as Top Rank is willing to part with a pretty penny.
“Her and Eddie need to have a conversation because she’s saying, ‘We’re on my terms’, and Eddie is coming out with quotes from this weekend saying, ‘Oh yeah, Top Rank needs to make me an offer that we can’t refuse, the number needs to be big,’” Mayer told Boxing Social. “We made the first offer because we were the champions. Now you’re the champion, you’re the undisputed champion, since when does the challenger make the offer? That means he’s literally willing to send his unified undisputed world champion back over to Top Rank on ESPN. Why? Only thing I can think of is he can’t afford the rematch.”