WBO junior light-weight world champion Mikaela Mayer needs to make extra historical past. Mayer will tackle longtime IBF world champion Maiva Hamadouche in a title unification tilt this Friday, Nov. 5 at The Theater at Virgin Accommodations Las Vegas. This would be the first time a feminine world title bout has headlined a High Rank on ESPN card since the latest incarnation of the sequence debuted in July 2017.
Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs), ranked No. 5 on ESPN.com’s pound-for-pound record, is making the second protection of the title she gained in October 2020. Hamadouche (22-1, 18 KOs), from France, has defended her title six instances and is unbeaten since a 2015 choice loss to Belgian star Delfine Persoon.
Earlier than Mayer enters the ring, High Rank Knockout and Miss Nevada 2019 Tianna Tuamoheloa will carry out the nationwide anthem. Mayer may also have some rocking reinforcement accompanying her to the ring. Fashionable guitar legend Nita Strauss will carry out Mayer’s walk-out track. Mayer and Strauss had been teenage bandmates in Lia-Fail, a punk rock group that featured Mayer as its bassist.
At Wednesday’s press convention, there was little music however quite a lot of speaking. That is what Mayer, Hamadouche, and High Rank chairman Bob Arum needed to say.
Bob Arum
“That is terrific for ladies’s boxing. It’s nice that the perfect girls in any weight class are dealing with one another.”
“If we need to deliver girls’s boxing to the forefront of the game, all of us ought to advocate for three-minute rounds. If girls’s boxing needs to get right into a outstanding place that it hasn’t, nevertheless it ought to, for my part, it ought to be modified to three-minute rounds. Why is there a distinction in rounds between girls’s and males’s boxing?
“We now have to take a look at different sports activities. The one which involves thoughts instantly is the one the place girls’s participation is identical as males’s. In skilled tennis, girls play a recreation and it’s the identical point-scoring as males. By conserving it at two-minute rounds, you might be telling the world that girls’s boxing is totally different. If we’re frightened about well being points, do three-minutes rounds and regulate the variety of rounds that girls can struggle.”
Mikaela Mayer
“My mindset is that I’m right here to problem myself to the perfect of my capability on this struggle and for the remainder of my profession. She has been a champion for six years, however in all that point she didn’t even push for a world title unification bout. I needed to go on the market and be very vocal and push exhausting to make this struggle occur.”
“That is the largest struggle of my profession. That is my probability to indicate that I’m the perfect fighter in my division. Profitable this struggle and performing very properly will put me as the highest participant within the division. One struggle at a time, however since I turned a world champion, we’re large fights solely.”
“We all know her type. She is correct. She is aggressive, and I haven’t confronted somebody as aggressive in my skilled profession, however I’ve confronted loads of kinds as an newbie. We’re ready for it. If she thinks she goes to bully me, that won’t be the case.”
“Speaking from expertise, that additional minute may change a struggle. You could possibly have extra knockouts and extra finishes.”
Maiva Hamadouche
“That is an thrilling alternative for me. I’ve defended the title on a number of events and now this can be a nice alternative to unify world titles.”
“I consider my expertise would be the distinction. I’m very aggressive and really bodily. I’ll come at her like no different fighter has come at her earlier than.”
“I feel that preventing at three-minute rounds will probably be excellent for me. That’s precisely what I would like.”
FRIDAY, November 5 2021
ESPN+, Roughly 11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT
Mikaela Mayer vs. Maiva Hamadouche, 10 rounds, WBO/IBF Junior Light-weight title unification bout
Luis Melendez vs. Thomas Mattice, 8 rounds, junior light-weight
ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
Andres Cortes vs. Mark Bernaldez, 8 rounds, junior light-weight
Joseph Adorno vs. Damian Araujo, 8 rounds, light-weight
Abdullah Mason vs. Jaylan Phillips, 4 rounds, light-weight
Tyler Howard vs. Ian Inexperienced, 8 rounds, middleweight
Martez McGregor vs. Rowdy Legend Montgomery, 6 rounds, tremendous middleweight
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Occasion Title: Mikaela Mayer vs. Maiva Hamadouche — Press Convention
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2021
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