Mikaela Mayer poured her heart out for the second time in 15 months in a championship bout in England. And for the second time, she got nothing but praise for her efforts.
Mayer lost a split decision to IBF welterweight champion Natasha Jonas Saturday in Liverpool, England, in a fantastic bout that will receive serious consideration when it is time to discuss the best fights of 2024. That, though, was of little consolation to Mayer, who dropped a split decision. The judges had it 96-94 and 96-95 for Jonas, while a third had it 97-93 for Mayer, which was enough to allow Jonas to retain her belt. KevinIole.com favored Mayer, 96-94, though it was a barnburner that made both of them look like stars.
It was the kind of fight that was going to leave the winner joyous and the loser angry, just as was the case in Mayer's only previous defeat. On Oct. 22, 2022, in London, Mayer fought brilliantly but dropped a split decision to Alycia Baumgardner in another hotly contested bout.
She started slowly in that one and couldn't recover. This time, it was blazing toe-to-toe action from the first bell. According to CompuBox, Mayer threw more and landed more, but Jonas connected at a significantly higher rate. Mayer was 149 for 493, a 30.2 connect percentage. Jonas was 125 of 312, hitting on 40.1 percent of her shots.
"I thought I did enough to win," Mayer, a 2016 U.S. Olympian, said in the ring afterward. "I would have given her the first round or two, but after that, I feel like I out-punched her and landed the cleaner shots. At the end of the day, that fight is worth seeing again."
Mayer's problem was that while she was highly aggressive and was ranking Jonas with hard straight right hands, she was not moving her head and Jonas was countering her well. Jonas, fighting southpaw, was having great success with her right hook.
There was little to choose from them, though, as both women gave as good as they got. Jonas had swelling around her left eye as evidence of the pitched battle she'd taken part in, and she knew she'd been pushed to the limit.
Both women knew the fight was on the line in the ninth and 10th and left everything they had in the ring. Mayer had a 35-19 edge in power shots in those two rounds, but Jonas hung on for the win.
"She is in the top-two fighters I have faced and I know she will be devastated with this defeat, but she should use it as motivation to become a two-weight world champion," Jonas said. "The only person I fought who is better is Katie (Taylor)."
Both fought like champions on Saturday and a rematch makes sense. Time will tell if that happens, but Mayer can flow home to Las Vegas from England and know she put on a sensational show and earned the respect of everyone who saw the bout.