I'm very pleased to welcome into our podcast this week. It is the former
junior lightweight world champion, Mikayla Mayor. Michael, It's a pleasure to have
you on here. We're gonna talk about your very significant fight coming up.
But first of all, how are you doing and how was camp going?
As we get closer to your January twentieth date with Natasha Jonas, I'm doing
Gray Gray. I know every fighter says that about this time, I genuinely
feel this fight because of myself to sort of fill out and be more comfortable
weight, and so usually at this point camp, I'm lying right now,
I don't feel that great, but no, I genuinely feel good and strong,
still going good and sporring, and I'll be ready, all right,
So I'll tell the people you're gonna be going over to Liverpool, England to
challenge Natasha Jonas for the IBF Women's Welterweight World Championship that will take place January
twentieth. Like I mentioned, it's gonna be on ESPN Plus here in the
United States, And as I was looking over your record, I realize you
know you've been fighting regularly. It seems like in the UK, and I
realized, yes, this will be, in fact, your fourth consecutive fight
in England. I just wondered, is that is it something that you enjoy
doing and is it because that's just where the bigger fights are and the money
is or is there some other reason that you continue to continue to go there?
And how's your British accent these days? It's getting better but still a
pretty shitty. No, it's more of a strategic business thing. There's most
of my fights, most of my next big bumps and big fights are against
people out in the UK. So it's especially this fight, this is where
I need to be to get myself back in position. You know, I
started by not in the UK when we had that big women's card, Close
Shields versus Savannah Marshall and Me versus Bomb Gardener, and that that just so
happened because we've got to be amazing to have had a huge female card with
the two Arena, and it was we sold it out, it was awesome.
And then from there I just I guess the BRIT's like me, so
I continue to fight out there, and now if you look at all my
big future opponents and my big fights there against girls, from that side of
the pond. So now it's just sort of a business move. I'm glad
I've done it, so now I'm not so much of underdog. So I
mentioned this fight will take place in Natasha's hometown of Liverpool. The other fights
that you have fought in the UK were against women that of course you were
traveling from America to go there. But you fought in the UK against another
American in Bomb Gardner. As you mentioned, you fought another one of your
opponents was from Italy. Another one was from Sweden. But this is the
first time you're fighting a brit in Britain, not only in Britain, but
in her hometown. Do you have any pause about that aspect of this matchup?
That's true, I didn't realize. I guess this is my first brit
For someone who fights over there so often, this is my first brit and
it isn't our hometown, so that's new for me. You know. I've
always been on the A side, I think, you know, and now
I'm kind of going into enemy territory and I know that they go hard for
their people over there. You know, Natasha Jonas is very well respected,
so I don't know I don't know how the fans are going to react to
me. I also know that I have a big fan base there now too,
because I've foughten there so much in the last year. But still,
you know, I think the crowd is going to favor Natasha, and that's
okay. I'm okay with it. I've had all the experience I need in
the world. You know, when I by the time I'm walking through that
ring, I'm so zoned in focus second mat Beller rings ALVINOI is going to
go out the window. So if they boom me, they boom me.
I mean, I've been watching your entire career. I was at your pro
debut, I've been to many of your fights, I've watched many of your
interviews. We've interviewed before. I get to feel you can if you want,
you can play the heel really well if you wanted to. Yeah,
I could, But I don't know. It's hard to build that type of
I mean, you've seen me do it before with my opponents, but it's
hard to build that with someone like Natasha Jonas, who's just so nice,
like she's she's like a gem over there. Everyone loves her, you know,
she's do anything wrong. She doesn't really talking to smack about people,
so you know, it would be out of character for me, and I
just wouldn't steam right if I started going at her heart in a certain way.
So this fight is more I think two women. We're both olympians,
we both have huge accomplishments, huge amateur pedigree, former world champions, and
so she is the world champion, me and former world champion, but you
know we were pioneers in this sport. So now this is this is a
strategic fight. This is a you know who who's gonna I think a lot
of people are thinking that one of us is at the end of our career,
and it's not me. Well, she's thirty nine years old, and
she was the one that was in the Olympics, and I believe twenty twelve,
you are thirty three years old. You were in the Olympics in two
thousand and sixteen. And even though you do actually have a few more pro
fights than she does, you're going this is you have twenty pro fights,
She's got what sixteen or seventeen pro fights. So when you say that that
some people think one of you is at the end of your career. I
kind of take the viewpoint that it seems to me that neither one of you
are at the ind of your career, even though she may be older.
You've both been fighting really well. You know, yeah, why would why
would you say that? Though? I guess, I mean, I think
there's a lot of agism and sexism in this sport. You know, there
really is. Like I have thirty three and that I haven't heard a handful
of handful of people say that, Oh, now I'm gonna tay the tail
end of my career, blah blah blah, I'm declining yet. You know,
Canelo is thirty three and he's in his prime. It's just so you
have you get two different storylines. You have one loss by like a one
point split decision, and you're at the end of your career. Thank you,
thank you. I mean, I don't I feel better than I've ever
spelt, especially since I'm letting my body fill out. Now I'm fighting in
a more natural weight I can put on that muscle that you can think about
it. Most people, as a develop into their career, by the time
their thirty three, they've moved into three different weight divisions. I've sayed at
one thirty fifteen years, so it's time. It's time for me to fill
out, and I feel great. So I was going to ask you about
that. Did you go you you were a champion and unified champion at one
hundred and thirty pounds. In fact, the fight where you unified the titles
against Hammaduche was one of the great women's fights I've ever seen, one of
the I mean, I was ringside for that fight, so I don't know.
Maybe I'm biased because of that, but that was a hell of a
fight. But here's the thing, though, you were unified champion at one
thirty after you lost the belts to Bomb Garner, your next fight was at
one thirty five. Then you fought at one forty not title fights. Now
you're fighting for a title at one forty seven. So my question is were
you moving up through those weight classes so quickly because of as you mentioned,
you were just wanting to put the weight on it. It was making you
feel better or stronger, or was it more because you had the opportunity to
go to welterweight to become a world champion again. So a little bit of
both. I immediately knew I was moving to one thirty five. That next
fight after bomb Gardner was one thirty five, and my body's just letting my
body fill out the tiniest bit it wanted to keep going. One thirty five
was still no different than one thirty to me, that's what it felt like.
So then I thought, okay, let's then My goal was to stay
to fight Katie Taylor, who was the unified champion at one thirty five,
and I became mandatory for her in that fight. But she's busy, She's
caught up with Serrano and Chontill cameraon and like had all these fights verus.
So I'm like, I can't really stick around at one thirty, but I'm
not going to get this fight with Katie Taylor immediately. So I'm like,
okay, where can I get this opportunity? Then Top Rank called and said,
what about jumping to one forty seven. There's an opportunity to fight Tasha
Jonas. I said, okay, Like I eventually thought I'd end up at
one forty seven, so this I didn't think. I jumped there so quickly,
but Chontal Camera wasn't available at one, Katie Taylor wasn't available at one
thirty five. It was just the most immediate fight for me, and so
the next fight I took at one forty two to slowly continue to sort of
build that you know, build that strength and build my body out. So
yeah, one thirty one thirty five, one forty two, all to prepare
for this fight at one forty seven. So a lot of people would look
at it and say, as you mentioned, you fought most of your career
in the one hundred and thirty pound weight class with a smat you know,
a few fights since or really just two fights since, you know, in
the heavier weights. But and then she's a champion at one forty seven.
She was a unified champion at one fifty four. But the reality is,
I was I didn't realize this until I started to look at her record as
I was getting ready to talk to you today, that most of her fights,
even though she's been a champion of those heavierweight divisions, really we're at
one hundred and thirty one hundred and thirty five. And I also see on
the on the listing, you're actually like about an inch taller than she is,
So you know, who's really the She's the champion in the heavier weight
class. But who's who's the bigger woman, so to speak in the fight.
I think I definitely am gonna be. She's had more time at that
weight, so maybe she's a little bit more comfortable there. You know,
it takes time to reverse all what I've done, what I've done to my
body, you know, holding it down the web thirty for so many years.
It takes time to reverse that. You can't just build that muscle overnight.
So she has, you know, the experience there. But you're right,
most of advice at one thirty one thirty five. She only went to
one forty fifty four because that is where the opportunity was. You know,
the higher you go in the weights, a little bit less of competition is
maybe a little easier. It is a snag of belt. So you know,
that's what she did. It's a strategic move, and she did that.
And now she's come down to one forty seven and if you look at
all the women, that's where they're going. One seven is the next big
division for us. Yeah, I think you're right about that. I mean,
especially you mentioned like some of the other women you were talking about,
Katie Taylor is vacated now. Some of the belts at one thirty five.
She's keeping the belts at one forty. Got to figure before it's all said
and done, she moves up. You're obviously going to go up at some
point, you know, for this fight and perhaps beyond, you know,
stay there for a little bit. I just want to touch on one of
the other fights you had. We were talking about, you know, you
having a bunch of fights in the UK. The first bout that you had
in that run of fights over there was the fight with Bombgarner, which was,
you know, a unification fight, was on that big card you mentioned
with Claressa was a pretty big deal. She barely barely beats you by,
like I said, one point on two of the scorecards. You were well
ahead on the third score card since that fight and you, I mean,
we all know the back and that you women had going into that fight,
a lot of you know, bad blood so to speak, between you two
guys and gals. She tested positive in a subsequent fight for a banned substance,
which you know, anytime that happens, it's gonna make some people think
that if you tested positive for that fight, that you maybe weren't clean for
previous fights. In other words, you know, when you get caught once,
it's not necessarily the first time you ever did it. I wonder what
your thoughts were when you saw that she had tested positive for a banned substance.
Yeah, I thought, I think her whole legacy is a question now,
not in although her body was so ripped. She claims to be a
very hardcore Christian, So I literally never thought that she would do something like
that. But I believe it's true because if you look at the levels that
she tested for, they weren't just minimal traces like something you accidentally got mixed
it to your protein powder. I mean, those are really really high levels
of testosterone and other black market drugs that you really can't even get in America.
So you know, she's guilty, and I'm disappointed because you know,
there's no going back in reversing like how that's affected the division, the one
hundred and thirty pound division over the last two years since she came out of
nowhere, which is another little hint probably that she wasn't natural. But you
know, you can't. That's that's just you know, you can't go back.
You can't. You never know a whole legacy is in question. At
this point, and now it's up to the commissions and the governing bodies to
strip her, make an example of her, and give lay some type of
punishment down which they have. That's the pointing part. If she is eligible
at some point, would you want to have a rematch with her? You're
not person asked me that, and I honestly have to consider whether I want
would want to give her another opportunity. Right now, she's going around calling
out someone like Cloris' Shields because she knows that she's you know, needs to
stay relevant somehow, she should be stripped right now. I don't think she
deserves any of us champion or top you know, pound and pound, all
these top girls right now in this generation. She doesn't deserve any of our
attention or any of our respect until she clears her name, which I don't
think she's wanted to be able to do. She should have already been stripped,
So I don't know, you know, we'll see when it comes down
to that. Right now, I'm at one forty seven, she's still at
one thirty. She talks about coming up. But I got Tasha Jonas right
now in front of me and all the other girls that are already at one
forty seven that I'm thinking about. Well, we mentioned a bunch of the
top uh, you know women fighters, yourself and Bomb Garner at that time,
Shields obviously, Natasha Jonas, Soroano, Katie Taylor, Cameron. You
mentioned all of these people I have mentioned. You're all fighting each other in
the biggest fights that you can make in your various weight classes. And when
the fights are made, they usually are done so with not a lot of
drama as far as you know, the fight comes up, it might take
a couple of weeks, a couple of months to hammer it out, and
no must, no fuss, and you get in the ring and take care
of your business and it's on to the next And it seems like a regular
occurrent at least in the female side of boxing. I wonder, why do
you think it seems to me anyway that it's so much easier for that to
happen with the female boxers, And it is when it comes to making the
biggest fights with any of the men's boxers, because us women have more to
prove. You know, we haven't had the opportunity, we haven't had a
platform, we haven't had like all the supports and the networks were just a
handful of us are now getting that. And if we want to continue to
grow that and show that we belong and I prove the good decision, we
have to make the big fights happen we want that. Does it excites us?
I don't know. I think the men maybe have been a little bit
spoiled in the sense where they can kind of co through take one big fight,
pocket millions of dollars and kind of you know, take a few two
nut fights in here and there. I just don't think the women have had
the privilege like we're here trying to prove that we belong in the sport and
in orders we have to put on the most exciting fights possible, whether I've
stated well or not well enough or not email Hopefully the next generation will,
but we're going to be doing a lot of things that we're not really going
to reap the benefits of. So, you know, I was wondering about
this. You know, I've always just adored Al Mitchell, your trainer.
I've known him for many, many years, one of the best guys I
know in the whole sport. I wonder how excited does he get to see
you go on these types of big fights and have opportunities to fight in for
titles and heavier weight classes and move along. I mean, you know,
he's got to. He was, you know, he's you know, he's
trained a lot of uh, a lot of great boxers, a lot of
guys, a lot of mostly gouts, a lot of really bad, faster
boxers who were really accomplished and skilled. And here I come one day and
my walking into this gym, my little pink, juicy suit. And he
never thought that I'd be the one, because if you look at the group
of people he's had in the gym, even the group he had in the
gym when I walked in, he would never expect the one to make it
this far. And I'm the last one standing, you know, so he
tells me all the time, and I always believed I'd be in this position.
And maybe don't exactly how because we've been, you know, pliling away
in a path, but I always believed I d here. And he says,
never, that's it. He just never expected and he just wanted me,
you know, made me make a little money and then never wanted me
to turn pro. You know, just makes some ninety sponsors and blah blah
blah. So he's definitely happy that I'm here, and he just wants He's
tells me all the time, just you know, a few more years.
You take these big fights, you win them, you take money, so
your set for life and just go on and commentate you have to fight anymore.
So yeah, exactly, you know he's stobbing me, but he doesn't
want me doing it forever. Well, I remember distinctly being at your professional
debut in Los Angeles. I believe it was the Lomachenko under card when he
fought Mariaga, and where we re seated in the media section was right near
your corner. And your fight lasted probably what ninety seconds in your debut,
and the entire ninety seconds Al was screaming at the top of his lungs,
use your jeb, use your jeb. And now you're twenty fights into your
prokra I wonder how many times do you figure he's yelled at you to use
your jeb. You guys, it's so funny because to chau just now is
sort of letting me lose, I mean and letting me lose like for you
know, going into my last not this past year. But my last few
fights at one thirty and stuff, and you collecting those belts, I'd be
in the gym sporns Warren's barn. I mean, for that first half of
camp, I wasn't even allowed to throw my right hand. I mean,
just really really hard, disciplined, really hard on me, you know,
not letting me throw silly punches. Everything had to be behind my job.
Everything had to finish with the hook and so. But those have aba be
so technically sound now, you know. So I'm grateful for it, but
still telling me this, I mean, I can't I hear it in my
sleep. I'll here for the rest of my life. Well, I suspect
that from your fight against join us on January twentieth in Liverpool, England live
on ESPN Plus. You'll hear al yell and use your jab quite a bit.
Michela, thank you very much for the interview time and I wish you
good luck in the fight. Thanks so much, good talking to you you
too. Take care