Sandy Ryan (left) and Mikaela Mayer (right) square off ahead of their welterweight title fight – Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank
The “round zero” of the looming Sandy Ryan-Mikaela Mayer welterweight clash became something of a territorial dispute during their press conference today.
“We do know each other from the amateur days. She said she respected me. Then you’d think I’d be some kind of… ‘Hey, Mikaela, guess what? I come to train in America, at your gym, with your coaches and your team. Like, aren’t you excited?'” Mayer said before accusing Ryan of invading her personal space.
“None of that happened. So, of course, in my mind, she knew she was doing something a little shady. She knew there would be problems with that. And she knew I was at welterweight. It was no secret that I was a welterweight. I moved slowly over the year.”
Ryan (7-1-1, 3 KOs), who will try to defend her WBO welterweight world title against Mayer (19-2, 5 KOs) this Friday, September 27 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, had to fight back from a squat.
Sandy Ryan (left) and Mikaela Mayer (right) engage in a war of words ahead of their welterweight title clash – Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank
“We’ve known each other since amateur days,” Ryan said, currently ranked number 2 at welterweight by The Ring. “The first time I came to America was for the Jessica McCaskill fight, and Mikaela wasn’t at 147 then. I was on the Great Britain team, she was on the USA team, and we did training camps and sparred. I have always respected her as a fighter, and I have always said so. I don’t respect her as a person now with how she led to this fight.”
Mayer, who was the Ring’s first junior lightweight champion and is now named no. 3 at 147 pounds by The Ring, now sees Ryan’s foray into her gym and her team as an advantage.
“It was all really a blessing in disguise. Like, I honestly have to thank Sandy because I had to redirect everything, and I feel like I’m in a better position for it. I have Kofi Jantuah in my corner, with whom I am very happy. And they say you can’t learn that much at this stage of your career, but that’s not true for me. I always feel like I’m growing and getting better. We’ve put in a few good months together so I’m excited to go out there and show it.”
Ryan doubled down on her claim of innocence.
“I never came here to bother Mikaela. I came here to improve my own career. You see a lot of fighters—top-end fighters, British fighters—come over to America because the training is great here. The sparring is great. The coaches are great. You see fighters do it to improve their career, and that’s exactly what I did.”
In the 10-round junior middleweight co-main event of the Ryan-Mayer main event, Puerto Rican sensation Xander Zayas (19-0, 12 KOs) will face Mexican contender Damian Sosa (25-2, 12 KOs).
Brooklyn-born featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (12-0, 8 KOs) will open the ESPN televised tripleheader in a 10-round tilt against Sulaiman Segawa (17-4-1, 6 KOs).
Ryan-Mayer, Zayas-Sosa and Carrington-Segawa will be televised live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT.
The ESPN+ streamed undercard begins at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT and includes the MSG debut of Vito Mielnicki Jr. (19-1, 12 KOs), who will fight Italy’s Khalil El Harraz (16-5-1, 2 KOs) in a 10-round junior middleweight bout.
A press release by Top Rank was used in this article.
