The Drama in Mikaela Mayer’s Camp Shrouds her Forthcoming Battle with Sandy Ryan

Mikaela Mayer seeks to become a world title-holder in a third weight class when she challenges WBO welterweight champion Sandy Ryan in the featured bout in the Theater at Madison Square Garden on a Top Rank show on Sept. 27. There’s bad blood between the two ladies which adds an extra dimension to their showdown.

Boxing promoters are notorious for contorting a contest into a grudge match. The practice dates to the days when booth fighters traveled the fairgrounds circuit in England. No fight commenced without a good bit of trash talk to goose the gate. But the enmity between Mikaela and Sandy is genuine. In Mikaela’s eyes, Sandy Ryan is an interloper and Sandy’s new co-trainer Kay Koroma is a traitor.

A little background: Coach Kay, as he is called, came to the attention of the movers and shakers in America’s amateur boxing system while toiling as an assistant coach at a boxing gym in Alexandria, Virginia, where he mentored future Olympians Keyshawn Davis and Troy Isley. A precocious Shakur Stevenson trained there too when he wasn’t back home in Newark, New Jersey and, for a time, Shakur lived in Coach Kay’s home.

Koroma followed his charges to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he would become a top assistant to head boxing coach Billy Walsh. By and large, the elite amateurs who were invited there developed a tight bond with Coach Kay and this went double for the ladies. Claressa Shields called him her favorite coach and presented him with a medal as a token of her appreciation after her gold medal showing at the 2016 Rio Olympics where California “Valley Girl” Mikaela Mayer, America’s other entrant on the distaff side, was eliminated in the second round.

After Koroma took to coaching professionals, a steady stream of top-tier female boxers turned up at whatever Las Vegas gym he used as his workplace. Sandy Ryan, the pride of Derby, England, spent three weeks at the DLX Gym with her regular coach but with Korona supervising her workouts in preparation for her September 2023 match with Jessica McCaskill in Florida. And then, Koroma turned up in Ryan’s corner in March of this year in Sheffield, England, where Ryan defended her belt with an unexpectedly one-sided win over countrywoman Terri Harper who was pulled out by her corner after the fourth round.

Mikaela and Sandy never fought as amateurs, but crossed paths at international tournaments and shared the ring as sparring partners. As pros, a match between them seemed inevitable after Mikaela was matched against IBF world welterweight title-holder Natasha Jonas in Liverpool in January of this year. Sandy Ryan then held the WBO version of the 147-pound title, setting up the possibility of a unified title fight.

Although Mikaela failed to dethrone Jonas, losing a narrow (and controversial) decision, it was a fair assumption that she and Ryan would meet somewhere down the road. When negotiations broke down for a rematch with Jonas, a date with Sandy Ryan materialized sooner than expected.

“I always felt that him training Sandy Ryan was a conflict of interest for Coach Kay, and I felt this way more strongly when I left Liverpool without a belt,” says Mikaela. “His priority should be helping navigate me back to a world title. I tried to stick it out, but eventually decided we had to part. As for Sandy, I would have never invaded her territory as she did mine and when I broached the subject with them and there was no transparency, I felt betrayed.”

Mikaela axed Coach Kay, ending an 8-year relationship. She chose Kofi Jantuah to replace him.

Kofi Jantuah

A native of Ghana and two-time world title challenger, Jantuah, 50, remained in Las Vegas after leaving the sport in 2009. Of late, he has been working with hot prospects like Curmel Moten and John “Candy Man” Easter. (The venerable Al Mitchell, who has been with Mikaela throughout her journey, remains on the team and will be assisting Jantuah in her corner on fight night. A longtime consultant to Team USA and the head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic boxing team that included Floyd Mayweather, the 80-year-old Mitchell resides in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.)

As for Kay Koroma, he didn’t handle the break-up well, failing to bottle up his anger, leading to a confrontation with Jantuah, and we have been reliably informed that Coach Kay is now persona non grata at the DLX Gym where he had a large presence. (Koroma, who also trains such notables as Efe Ajagba, Shu Shu Carrington, and Rocky Hernandez, could not be reached for comment).

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The analogy is imperfect, but the legendary trainer Eddie Futch was in a similar quandary when Michael Spinks was matched against heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in 1985. Futch trained both.

Futch took the high road, spurning a good payday by recusing himself. “I know so much about each guy. Telling one guy what I know about the other…well that just goes against my grain,” Futch told syndicated sportswriter Stan Hochman. Futch also refused to pick a winner beyond saying he felt the 6/1 odds favoring Holmes were too high.

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Mikaela Mayer, who was part of NBC’s Olympic boxing coverage, working from a studio in Stamford, Connecticut, has won 19 of her 21 pro fights. Both of her losses — to Alycia Baumgardner and Natasha Jonas….were by split decision and could have gone either way. Sandy Ryan, four years younger than Mikaela at age 30, is 7-1-1 as a pro. She avenged her lone defeat which came against a seasoned campaigner in her fourth pro fight and most folks thought she edged Jessica McCaskill in a match that was ruled a draw.

Fighting on American soil after her last four fights were in England, Mikaela Mayer will go to post a “short puppy” if the odds hold up. In man-to-man betting, Sandy Ryan is a 7/5 favorite. Strip away all the drama related to the Kay Koroma situation and this remains a very compelling match-up.

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