Author: Sean Crose

“I’ve never had so much pain in my arms after a fight,” Mikaela Mayer said Friday night after winning the WBO welterweight title with a high-octane victory over Sandy Ryan. Indeed, the fight was fierce. Mayer proved to be faster and more mobile early on, but as the fight progressed, she was tagged by defending champion Ryan. “It went similar to what I thought,” Mayer told ESPN’s Mark Kriegel in the ring after the judges awarded him the majority victory. “She has a lot of pedigree, just like me, but I knew I could beat her. I knew I was swift. I knew I was sharper… I felt like I had won the fight. I’m glad I made the right decision this time. ”

Before the fight, it was clear that Mayer and Ryan were not huge fans of each other. However, things took a shadowy turn before the fight when Ryan was attacked on a Up-to-date York street on her way to Madison Square Garden, where the fight was about to end. “Something broke in my stomach,” Ryan told Kriegel before the fight, “I looked down, it was a paint can, I looked up, a guy in a hood running to a car. Then they drove away.”

Ryan, who was fighting for only his second time in the United States and first time in Up-to-date York, was visibly concerned. “Nothing like this has ever happened,” she said. “Mikaela Mayer understands this. It’s definitely someone from her team. Why should it be any different? It has to be. I’m from Great Britain. Who will hit me and run away? Who knew what time I left the hotel to arrive? Who knew that someone was sitting in a hotel and saying that he would come now? They know what time I leave the facility with my team.”

With this in mind, the thirty-three-year-old remained determined. “Throw things at me,” she said, “because that’s what they’re trying to do.” For her part, Mayer condemned and denied any involvement in the incident. “I mean obviously crossing the line,” she told Kriegel before the fight. “It’s messed up, so I feel sorry for her. I’m sorry this happened to her. Of course I had nothing to do with it. I would never do something like that. This is crossing the line 100 percent.”

After the fight, Mayer expressed his desire to have a rematch with Ryan, provided the money and fan interest were adequate. The 34-year-old claimed her dream was to become the undisputed welterweight division. “You won’t see me in an effortless fight,” Mayer said. “I will fight for the biggest and best.”

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BEING a professional boxer without a long-term contract with a large promoter is often hard. Unless you’ve won a medal at the Olympics or had a great amateur career, your chances of signing such a contract are slim. So most have no choice but to climb the ladder when performing in miniature venues.

Boxing has been compared to the Wild West and when you realize that most prospects have to sell countless tickets to break even, you start to wonder what drives so many to risk their health, fight after fight, for little or no financial return .

But at the same time, this fight is what makes this sport so fascinating. These are Cinderella stories about boxers competing in random places in Mexico, and years later, like Canelo Alvarez, they headlined the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Or boxers like Josh Padley, who went from working as a part-time electrician, to fighting under the Anthony Joshua-Daniel Dubois undercard at Wembley Stadium, to winning as a ponderous underdog.

One British prospect hoping for a similar trajectory is Alex Murphy, a super lightweight from Salford. Despite his undefeated record of 11-0, he has not fought since stopping Eliecer Quezada at a Black Flash Promotions event last April.

Like many prospects using ticketing deals, Murphy trained in the gloomy for several months until he was offered the chance to return on October 25 for Wasserman Boxing in Bolton.

“It’s just a waiting game,” Murphy said Boxing news on the Internet.

“You just have to hope. You’re not sure what’s going to happen. You’re not sure what fights you’re going to get and what opportunities you’re going to get. This is beyond my control. The only thing I can do is stay in the gym and be ready for the call.

“Fortunately, we received notification about this match and I can have a proper training camp so that I can prepare for it. I had been training for a good two or three months and I just didn’t have any fights planned. Everything was a bit up in the air.

“But I can say that I stayed ready, I stayed in the gym and I finally scheduled the fight. I will be more than ready for it.”

This isn’t the first time Murphy has appeared on Wasserman’s card. He previously fought on the undercard of Lyndon Arthur vs. Brian Nahuel Suarez for the IBO delicate heavyweight title in September 2023 and twice more in the same year.

However, ‘Super’ is determined to put in a sturdy performance the next time he faces Dan Booth.

Murphy continued: “I just want to show how much I’ve improved in the time I’ve had the break. I haven’t left the gym since my last fight.

“I took part in many sparring sessions. This compact break could have been a blessing in disguise because it gave us a lot of time to work on different things and experiment with different things in training.

“I haven’t taken my foot off the gas pedal since my last fight in April. My fitness is at a high level, as always. I’m just keeping myself in the best shape possible and next month I’ll be even better, fitter and stronger. I can’t wait to show it to everyone.”

Murphy is a full-time professional boxer, so the pressure is on him to give his all in every fight. However, job responsibilities go beyond the squared circle. Sparring, strength, conditioning and technical exercises are only part of the puzzle.

“The more tickets I sell, the more money I get and that’s my salary. This is my full-time job, so that’s what I base my salary on.

“Training camps are not economical. It costs a lot of money to get my dietitian. Training, grocery shopping, and treatment all cost a lot of money. Last year the treatment cost me eight thousand.

“It cost me an extra two thousand because I had to go to a neuropsychologist. I was told I had to see the neuropsychologist again next year, so that’s another two grand. It’s not economical, but you just have to stay on top of it all.”

Moreover, with everything available online these days, it has never been more vital for an athlete to be present on social media and document their lifestyle to escalate their following.

“Even when I’m not fighting, I have to be energetic on social media so that people don’t forget about me. It sounds crazy, but it’s also challenging because when you’re not fighting, you don’t have much content to post. So it’s a bit of a battle.

“I feel like I spent as much time as I could on social media. I think the break may have been good for me in terms of ticket sales because during this inactive period, a lot of people were messaging me asking when my next fight was and expressing interest.

“Hopefully it won’t be long before I sign a contract with a promotion company and receive a set salary and ticket commission. It would make my life easier. “As it stands now, the more tickets I sell, the higher my salary.”

At just 23 years aged, Murphy has plenty of time to climb the ranks, gain more experience, develop his boxing skills and achieve manly strength.

And thanks to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s previous reign. Murphy still holds one of the best-selling tools for any professional boxer, an undefeated record.

Murphy, however, does not intend to shy away from more hard challenges and is already thinking about his first professional title.

“The plan is to fight Dan Booth. I need to be focused for this fight. This is a six round match. Then in December I will be sidelined again, which would mean eight rounds.

“This will set me up well for the start of next year with a chance at the Central Area title. Just go from there. Claim the Central Area title and see what next year brings. This should put me in a good position. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything will work out that way.”

Over the last twelve months, Shakiel Thompson has been quietly improving and gaining momentum. Last night he was firmly on the radar of all British middleweights.

The middleweight fighter from Sheffield put up a dominant performance on Friday night, stopping River Wilson-Bent in three rounds and setting himself up for several critical fights.

Wilson-Bent is a solid domestic operator who has never quite managed to push the envelope and get the win that would take him to the next level. He boxed Tyler Denny twice – earning a technical draw and losing a split decision – and was stopped on two occasions by Hamzah Sheeraz and eight times by Austin “Ammo” Williams.

The way Thompson (13-0 (9 KO)) handled Wilson-Bent (17-5-2 (7 KO)) suggests that he, too, has what it takes to fight for major titles.

The 27-year-old southpaw is 180 cm high and uses every inch of his frame, boxing from a wide stance and attacking opponents. Over the past year, he has developed a useful habit of making his presence known quickly and leading the fight from the first bell. He did exactly the same to Wilson-Bent, attacking from the very beginning and hurting the Coventry player with a right hand in the first round.

Thompson began hurting Wilson-Bent with long left hooks to the body in the second, but switched his attack to the top and knocked him down strenuous with a pair of miniature left hooks as the bell sounded to end the round.

Thompson’s right hook did the damage in the fourth. The outmatched Wilson-Bent was impaled three times by a shot and the fight was stopped with just seconds left in the round.

There are times when the soft-spoken Thompson forgets to move his head and gets caught with unnecessary shots as he tries to land his own punches, but he is a threatening and diverse fighter who has become a major threat to all domestic middleweights.

Earlier in the evening, Hughie Fury (29-3 (16 KO)) continued his rebuild with an eight-round decision victory over heavyweight Christian Thun.

The high Thun, 9-2 (7 KO) tried to take the center of the ring, but instead of using his usual punch and move tactics, the newly aggressive Fury took the fight straight to the German. He positioned himself in the middle, fired miniature shots to the head and body, and then stunned Thun with a huge right hand as the opening round came to an end.

Thun is a giant, but for reasons best known to him, he can barely land a straight punch. Fury moved into range whenever he wanted and fired shots at the head and body, but as the fight went on, Thun got better and better and began to create his own miniature combos.

The quality comes from Fury and he fully deserved a show of hands, but Thun gave him a good workout.

Fury has never been shy about testing his mettle against quality opponents, but last night it was clear he’s still a step or two away from facing one of the many heavyweight title contenders. However, one suspects that if he can continue to make progress, he will soon have a massive fight ahead of him.