Mikaela Mayer Says Baumgardner’s Face Said She Lost

Coming off her first professional defeat and the loss of her unified jr. lightweight world titles, American Mikaela Mayer was still trying to figure it all out Monday. However, one thing she wants to emphasize is that she not only knew that she won the narrow decision over Alycia Baumgardner, but that Baumgardner’s facial expressions told her that Baumgardner believed that she was losing too.

Mayer spoke with Sky Sports on Sunday, just a day after her split decision defeat to her fellow American champion and she told the network that she was shocked to hear the verdict go to Baumgardner,

.@MikaelaMayer1 shares her thoughts and what might be next for her.

(via @SkySportsBoxing) pic.twitter.com/Gnm1KAg7QF

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) October 16, 2022

“I do believe I won, strongly. I was very confident and my corner was very confident. You know my corner. You know coach Al. He doesn’t mess around. He tells me the truth. We stuck to the gameplan. We were outboxing her and I clearly won that decision,” Mayer told Sky.

When asked about looking shocked when Baumgardner got the nod 96-95 on two of the scorecards, Mayer replied,

“When that second score came in, one was for me and one was for her, I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ I saw her face at the end of those rounds. She was defeated. She was tired, moving, running. She knew she didn’t win that fight. You could see it in her face. I was very confident, but what are you going to do? This happens….I still want the biggest fights. If Baumgardner doesn’t want to give me the rematch, I still want (undisputed lightweight champ) Katie Taylor.“

As we wrote Saturday, Baumgardner’s dramatic win in London was based on her starting fast and she appeared to win the first couple of rounds to fight scoring with hard overhand rights. Mayer, who was the taller fighter with longer reach came on in the middle rounds scoring with her jab and right hands behind it.

Hear Dan Rafael and me discussing he Baumgarnder upset on “Fight Freaks Unite Recap” podcast by pressing play here,

But, in the end Baumgartner landed more meaningful punches especially in the 9th and 10th rounds of the fight to help her secure the upset win. The official Compubox punch stats showed the Ohio native Baumgardner out landing the Californian Mayer in power punches 79 – 39 for the fight to help her get the decision.

Baumgardner, now 13-0, 7 KOs, said post fight she will not give Mayer an immediate rematch and will instead try to fight for the undisputed 130 lb. championship with South Korea’s Hyun-Mi Choi, who holds the WBA title.

Mayer, now 17-1, will assess her future and perhaps move up to lightweight to try to fight the very popular Irish Taylor and possibly, right back in the U.K.