Mikaela Mayer was always prepared to take on anyone with a belt.
Her upcoming bid to become a two-division titlist comes with its advantages, given the matchup.
The former unified junior lightweight titlist travels to jolly old England, where she will challenge two-division titlist Natasha Jonas for her IBF welterweight title. The battle of Olympians and perennial weight jumpers marks a rare natural size advantage at this weight for Mayer, despite the bout serving as her divisional debut.
“Everyone thinks for some reason I’m going to be the smaller fighter,” Mayer told BoxingScene.com. “They had to have seen us stand next to each other. I’m clearly the bigger fighter and I’m carrying the weight well.
“There is no problem with me being at welterweight.”
The two will meet this Saturday for Jonas’ IBF welterweight title atop a Sky Sports/ESPN+ show from M&S Bank Arena in Jonas’ hometown of Liverpool, England.
Mayer (19-1, 5KOs) previously held the IBF and WBO titles at junior lightweight, where she spent most of her first five years as a pro. She waited around long enough to further unify the titles, but was considered unlucky to be dealt her lone career defeat. A disputed split decision to Alycia Baumgardner in their October 2022 lineal/WBC/IBF/WBO championship clash in London was the last time that Mayer would shrink her 5’9” frame into a 130-pound uniform.
This Saturday will mark her fourth weight division in as many fights after having previously picked up wins at lightweight and just above the junior welterweight mark.
Mayer’s first title fight since 2022 comes versus a former junior lightweight and lightweight contender in Jonas (14-2-1, 9KOs), a 2012 Olympian who found success as she moved up in weight. Jonas made a three-division leap to junior middleweight, where she won the WBO, WBC and IBF titles in back-to-back-to-back fights during her 2022 Fighter of the Year-worthy ring campaign.
A drop back down to welterweight was admittedly a better fit for Jonas, who never weighed more than 149 ¼, well below the 154-pound junior middleweight. Conversely, Mayer feels at home as she’s grown into a welterweight frame, believing even as she fought at lightweight that a higher weight was in her immediate future.
“The only benefit Jonas has in this fight is that she’s been at this higher weight a little longer and fought the bigger girls,” Mayer stated. “She’s been able to hold that weight and get comfortable in her skin. Whereas I’ve spent the past year reversing everything I’ve ever done to my body by keeping it down to130 for so long.
“This past year was about growing into my proper weight—135, 142 and now 147.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox