Bizarre build-up culminates in brilliant brawl, as Mikaela Mayer claims WBO welterweight title by edging Sandy Ryan

Even by boxing's loony standards, the build-up to the WBO welterweight title fight Friday between Sandy Ryan and Mikael Mayer at The Theater at Madison Square Garden was bizarre.

Ryan, the champion from the United Kingdom who came to the U.S. to defend her belt, was accused by Mayer of stealing her trainer, Kay Koroma. Koroma had been training Mayer along with Al Mitchell, but when Ryan turned up at Koroma's gym, Mayer fired him as her trainer and hired Kofi Jantuah. Koroma sat the fight out, sitting in the stands while Flick Savoy worked Ryan's corner.

And as Ryan left her hotel, an odd incident occurred in which a man got out of a car and threw a can of red paint on her. She believed Mayer was behind it, though Mayer denied it.

Once the bell rang, though, they were all business and treated those in attendance to perhaps the best women's fight of 2024. Mayer won a majority decision by scores of 97-93, 96-94 and 95-95 to lift the WBO title from Ryan and become a two-division champion.

Ryan, whose power seemed to hurt Mayer several times in the second half of the fight, said the paint incident negatively impacted her.

"Before coming to the venue, I don't know if you guys seen, but I had a hit and run [with paint outside the hotel]," Ryan said to the crowd during a post-fight interview with ESPN's Mark Kriegel. "And that was definitely set up. I'm not taking nothing away from the win, but it unsettled me. It unsettled me at the start.

"Walking to the venue, I was shook up. And then it threw me off a bit of my game plan because I just wanted to fight. And you seen at the start of the fight, I was handling her quite well on the jab. I was boxing her and then I started to pick it up. But then, I was obviously pushing it too hard.”

Mayer had a 186-185 edge in total punches landed, and had a 132-128 edge in power shots. It was Ryan who landed the harder more impactful blows, but Mayer's ring generalship and activity are apparently what won her the fight.

Ryan was leading by a point, 67-66, after seven rounds on two of the three cards, and was up a point on the third. But she swept the final three rounds on two cards and won two of the last three on the other to pull out the verdict.

“I feel like I closed the distance in the second half of that fight," Mayer said. "I was landing my combinations at will. She was coming forward with her body, but I was catching her coming in every time.“

Mayer was a unified champion at 130 pounds and held the interim WBC lightweight belt, but she outgrew the weight and was forced to move to welterweight. She showed a great chin, taking some thudding shots from Ryan in the back half of the bout, but said she didn't think it was Ryan's power that was significant.

Ryan was physically strong and was able to body her successfully, Mayer said.

“She's probably definitely the strongest person I've ever boxed," Mayer said. "Not so much in her shots, but you could feel it in her body in the way she was trying to push me around the ring. But, you know, skill beats strength.”

Mayer said she'd look to unify the welterweight belts, but said if fans demand a rematch, she'd do it again.