Mikaela Mayer made the most of her showcase.
The former U.S. Olympian schooled Helen Joseph on the finer points of boxing in the main event Tuesday inside the MGM Grand bubble in Las Vegas on ESPN, dominating almost every minute of all 10 two-minute rounds to win a near-shutout decision in the junior lightweight bout.
Mayer (13-0, 5 KOs) dominated Joseph (17-5-2, 10 KOs) in every conceivable way. She used her jab and footwork to keep her aggressive, but shorter opponent at a distance, consistently landing sharp combinations from that position.
She beat Joseph to the punch at almost every turn. And, most important, she simply outworked the game, but overmatched Nigerian fighter from beginning to end.
Thus, the scores were no surprise: 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91. That last card, which belonged to capable judge Julie Lederman, was generous.
And Mayer did it without longtime trainer Al Mitchell in her corner. Mitchell is at home recovering from the coronavirus.
“He’s my biggest critic, so even though I won every round, I probably didn’t work the body enough,” Mayer said. “I abandoned my jab at times, but I think, all in all, he’ll be happy.”
The victory had to be particularly gratifying in light of the journey that led her to the main event.
Mayer was supposed to have fought Joseph on June 9, the first card in Top Rank’s summer series. However, she tested posited for COVID-19 and was pulled from the show, which left her devastated. Her fate was particularly frustrating given that she claims it was a false positive, meaning she arguably could’ve fought.
The fight was then rescheduled to be the co-feature under Jamel Herring’s title defense against Jonathan Oquendo on Tuesday. Then Herring tested positive for the virus a second time, which resulted in his fight being pulled from the card and Mayer-Joseph being elevated to the main event.
Where does it lead? Mayer wants to fight one of the 130-pound titleholders. She has called out unbeaten beltholder Terri Harper of the U.K.
Bob Arum, her promoter, told her what she wanted to hear immediately after her convincing victory over Joseph.
“Bob said, ‘Great fight,’ and that the next one will be for the title,” Mayer said. “We’ve been trying to get a world title fight for a while now. I said, ‘Don’t let Eddie Hearn [outbid] us.’”
In preliminaries, popular journeyman Clay Collard (8-2-3, 3 KOs) of Cache Valle, Utah, maintained his momentum, stopping overmatched Lorawnt T Nelson (5-4, 4 KOs) of South Africa at 1:57 of the second round of a scheduled six-round super middleweight fight.
Nelson went down three times, once in the Round 1 and twice more in Round 2, before the referee stepped in to save him from undue punishment. Collard landed almost at will from the opening bell.
“The key is just staying consistent,” Collard said. “I work hard every day. I listen to my coach every day. He yells at me every day. It’s just staying consistent and keeping the ball rolling.”
Collard is now 4-0 this year. His previous three victories came against previously unbeaten opponents, including an upset of prospect David Kaminsky on June 18 at the MGM Grand.
And he might be getting better.
“I think I fought him more like a boxer,” he said. “I was picking my shots a little better, not crowding him so much, keeping him at the end of my punches, working my jab. Just boxing. I’ve been working on my boxing.”
Javier Martinez, an elite amateur making his pro debut, outboxed Ryan Burrs (2-2, 0 KOs) of Frederick, Maryland, to win a shutout decision in a four-round super middleweight fight. All three judges scored it 40-36.
Martinez, a southpaw, landed some sharp right hooks that stunned Burrs but the loser was never seriously hurt.
Martinez was a five-time national champion and USA Boxing’s No. 1 middleweight yet was named an Olympic alternate, prompting the Milwaukee fighter to turn pro.
Burrs is listed as Jonathan Burrs on Boxrec.com.
And, in a six-round lightweight bout, Ruben Cervera (12-2, 10 KOs) of Colombia defeated Clay Burns (9-9-2, 4 KOs) of Forth Worth, Texas. The scores were: 58-56, 59-54 and 59-54.
Cervera put Burns down with a left hook in the first round.
