Junior lightweight contender Mikaela Mayer easily outclassed Helen Joseph in a one-sided, 10-round, unanimous decision in the main event of a Top Rank boxing card on ESPN at the MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
This was the first time a women’s fight had been the main event for a Top Rank card on ESPN.
Putting forth a strong and focused exhibition of boxing and combination punching, Mayer began the fight at a fast pace and never let up. After 10 rounds, the scores read 99-91 and 100-90 (twice) for Mayer, who remained undefeated and on track for a junior lightweight title shot.
Mayer (13-0, 5 KOs) who was fighting without her lead trainer, Al Mitchell — who said he tested positive for COVID-19 — came out of the gate throwing quick, rapid-fire 1-2 combinations down the middle. Joseph (17-5-2, 10 KOs) methodically stalked Mayer at a measured pace, and you wondered if her plan was to take over down the stretch.
“[Mitchell] is my biggest critic, so even though I won every round, I probably didn’t work the body enough,” Mayer said after the fight. “I abandoned my jab at times, but I think, all in all, he’ll be happy.”
Unfortunately for Joseph, Mayer never relented in her attack. In fact, in the later stage of the fight, as Mayer started to mix in left hooks and right uppercuts to her combinations, Joseph’s willingness to march forward waned a bit.
From start to finish, this was Mayer’s night.
“[Top Rank promoter Bob Arum] said, ‘Great fight,’ and that the next one will be for the title,” said Mayer. “We’ve been trying to get a world title fight for a while now.”
–espn.com
