Mikaela Mayer wins third career world title in Montreal

Thursday night, October 30, it was multi-world champion Mikaela Mayer (22-2, 5 KOs), travelling to Montreal, Canada, to challenge Canada’s Mary Spencer (10-3, 6 KOs) on her home turf, at 154 pounds.

Camille Estephan’s ‘Eye of the Tiger promoted the bout, held at Casino Montreal. 

Mayer, from Los Angeles, has competed in divisions ranging from junior lightweight to junior middleweight. She came into the pro ranks off an impressive amateur career that included a bronze medal at the 2012 Amateur World Championships, followed by a U.S. Olympic team berth at the 2016 Rio Olympics. 

Mayer turned pro with Top Rank Boxing 8 years ago and has been red hot ever since. Working with long-time trainer Al Mitchell, she has added former pro fighter Kofi Jantuah to her training team.

A 2-time world champion, Mayer arrived in La Belle Province looking to add a 3rd belt to her trophy case. 

Mayer, the WBO 147 champion, couldn’t secure a unification fight at this time, so she looked 7 pounds north. And the WBC and WBO also sanctioned the fight for Spencer’s WBA 154-pound belt. It was for all the marbles Thursday night. 

Spencer, Ontario-born but residing in Montreal, was no stranger to the venue as she made her 9th appearance there in 13 fights.

Mayer brought her effective aggression, excellent conditioning, and relentless work rate to the bout to overwhelm the less experienced Spencer. Mayer looked very effective both in close and working from the perimeter.  

At age 35, Mayer seems as focused as ever and is looking to continue to add titles and face the very best in what has been an elite-level career in women’s boxing. 

And impress she sure did on Thursday in Montreal. Clocking into work at Spencer’s home-based work site, with a pro-Spencer crowd in the house, Mayer handled it like a seasoned pro who doesn’t let much rattle her.

Working off a relentless work rate and fast, accurate combination punching, Mayer added up the points and the rounds to get the decision of the score cards and moved her record to 22-2 with 5 KOs. In the end, she dominated at 100-90, and 98-92 x 2.

More impressive is the fact that she was fighting at 154, not her natural or perhaps best weight. But it was the challenge and the opponent she was focused on, not the weight.

After the fight, Mayer was pleased with her performance and where she was in her career.

“I think the most important thing is I have options”, she said. “That’s great in boxing. You always want options. I came off two years where my career kind of took a left turn. I had to navigate my way back to this position. So having options is definitely a blessing”, she continued. “I’ll have to go back and go over things with my team. I would love to defend both belts. I can go back to 147, become undisputed there, and maybe come back up and defend at 154.”

Where does she go from here?

Who knows?

Back to 147?

Stay at 154 (where she looked very comfortable)?

It is hard to say, but in the meantime, she can bask in the glow of another great win.

Impressive stuff!