Mikaela Mayer Wins a Second Title; Overcomes Relentless but Out-gunned Hamadouche

LAS VEGAS-WBO titlist Mikaela Mayer just might be the best super featherweight, forget about the others, as the American champion pounded out a unanimous decision against France’s IBF champion Maiva Hamadouche on Friday.

It was something to see.

WBO titlist Mayer (16-0, 5 KOs) added Hamadouche’s (22-2, 18 KOs) IBF title and gave her only her second loss in front of several thousand fans at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can add some other trinkets to her stash too.

Props to Hamadouche who never backed away, but more surprising was her ability to absorb tremendous shots to her chin, jaw and body. She took punishment and kept on coming.

It was no surprise to Mayer.

“We knew what to expect,” said Mayer. “We trained hard in camp for that.”

At the opening bell both exchanged furious blows with Mayer using her longer reach to connect faster and Hamadouche barging in with blows like a mad windmill. Several times early she would use one hand to push Mayer’s head down while hitting with the other. She was warned twice in the first two rounds for the tactic.

It didn’t matter.

Mayer took things over with angles and power shots as soon as Hamadouche got into range. Over and over again the French champion ran into big blows especially the left hook at the end of three-punch combinations.

As mentioned earlier, Hamadouche has a great chin.

The French champion had used the same tactic for all of her pro fights, and they were successful. But she was fighting a taller, stronger and faster opponent in Mayer who was able to stand her ground when she chose. Also, Mayer was actually able to force Hamadouche backward in the latter three rounds.

One major difference between the two champions was Mayer’s body attack that started from the first round and never stopped. Hamadouche always paused when hit with liver shots and blows to the solar plexus.

Mayer had her best round in the sixth when Mayer connected with a five-punch combination and targeted the body and then back to the head. Hamadouche seemed to stagger slightly. Mayer was now in control.

Hamadouche never actually stopped punching in any round, but Mayer’s blows were always harder and they echoed in the arena.

After 10 rounds the judges scored the fight 98-92, 99-91, 100-90 for Mayer. She now holds the WBO and IBF titles and awaits the other super featherweight titlists to see which winner fights Mayer for her two belts. Terri Harper holds the WBC title and fights American Alycia Baumgardner next week in England. South Korea’s Hyun Mi Choi holds the WBA belt and will be facing the Harper and Baumgardner victor.

Mayer looks to be the best.

Other Bouts

Puerto Rico’s Luis Melendez (17-1 13 KOs) dominated the early rounds to win a unanimous decision over Thomas Mattice (17-3-1, 13 KOs) who simply waited too long to get the engines started.

Melendez was on the attack for the first four rounds of the junior lightweight contest as Mattice simply covered up and offered back some jabs. Around the fifth round Mattice began trying combinations and counters. They stalled Melendez’s attack. But it was too late. All three judges scored it 77-75 for Melendez.

Las Vegas lightweight Andres Cortes (16-0, 9 KOs) scored a knockout win over Philippine’s fighter Mark Bernaldez (23-5, 17 KOs). Cortes was the slightly quicker fighter and connected at 2:12 of the third round with a skew of punches that forced referee Robert Hoyle to stop the fight.

Abdullah Mason (1-0) won by second round knockout over Florida’s Jaylan Phillips (1-1) in a battle of lefty lightweights. Both fighters had their moments but Mason rallied behind a six-punch assault forcing the referee to stop the fight at 2:06 of the round.

New Jersey’s Ian Green (15-2, 11 KOs) won a slow and clinch-infested fight over the unenergetic Tennessee’s Tyler Howard (19-1, 11 KOs) to hand him his first loss as a professional. Green held in every round and was never warned by the referee. The holding kept the middleweight fight in slow motion for all eight rounds. Green won by decision.

Rowdy Montgomery (7-3-1, 5 KOs) knocked out Martez McGregor (8-6, 6 KOs) with a four-punch combination. Referee Robert Hoyle waved the super middleweight fight off immediately in the second round.

Photo credit: Al Applerose

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