{"id":3884,"date":"2022-12-20T07:19:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T07:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/mikaela-mayer-depression-and-acceptance-how-american-fighter-dealt-with-first-pro-loss\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T07:19:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T07:19:55","slug":"mikaela-mayer-depression-and-acceptance-how-american-fighter-dealt-with-first-pro-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/mikaela-mayer-depression-and-acceptance-how-american-fighter-dealt-with-first-pro-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikaela Mayer: Depression and acceptance – how American fighter dealt with first pro loss"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Mikaela Mayer was unbeaten in 17 fights and a unified world champion before her last bout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was several moments after losing her first fight as a professional when Mikaela Mayer finally let out her emotions. <\/span><\/p>\n

“The second I got away from it, like the crowd, I just started bawling,” she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You want to go back in time, wake up, but you can’t. It’s done, you can’t recall this decision. <\/span><\/p>\n

“You can’t replay the fight and ask for a second opinion. You can’t do anything…it’s just over.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer had not lost since her amateur days in 2017. She was 17-0 as a professional when she stepped into the ring with Baumgardner. It was a close fight, one Mayer started slowly but managed to take control of in the second half. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first scorecard read out was 97-93 for Mayer, the other two judges scored it 96-95 for Baumgardner.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When they announced that second score for her, I knew right away they were going to rob me,” Mayer said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 32-year-old was as furious as she was confused. Advised to stay in the ring by her publicist, Mayer remembers, vaguely, Baumgardner approaching her to say well done.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it is all still a blur.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’d never been in that position before so I wasn’t sure exactly how to handle it,” said the American.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer went back to her hotel that night with her best friend Ginny Fuchs. A fellow boxer, Fuchs had won her own fight. They ordered pizza, cracked upon a bottle of wine and “just sat there”. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer was grieving then. She and compatriot Baumgardner, 28, had feuded for months in the build-up to the fight. Both supremely talented, they made no secret of their dislike for one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a heated rivalry and Mayer returned to the United States, but she was devastated.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You think that your life and your story is now theirs,” she explained. “That they’ll go on to accomplish everything that you wanted to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mikaela<\/span><\/span>
Mayer was beaten via a split decision by Alycia Baumgardner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Or maybe another scenario is everything that was said in the trash talk was right and everything I said was wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Those scenarios are just running through my head all day long and basically what happens is my heart just drops to my toes every 10 minutes of the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

“How am I going to get through another day of this?”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer spent the next three weeks going through this rollercoaster. She not only questioned herself, but her future.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I always thought the second that I lost, or if I ever lost, how would I pull myself together for another training camp? How would I keep going?” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, slowly, Mayer began to think clearly. She still had the support of her partner, her promoters Top Rank and trainer Al Mitchell.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The depression starts right away,” she said. “You feel like it is never going to go away and then you just start to adapt.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer realised she did still have the fire to fight.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’ve always wanted to put on the biggest fights possible and this time I came up on the short end of that,” said the Californian.<\/span><\/p>\n

“But it doesn’t change the goal. I still want to make the biggest fights possible. <\/span><\/p>\n

“I still feel that’s important and I can’t preach that and then. When it’s time for me to do it and believe it and walk the walk, I can’t sit back and cower.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I know one day I will wake up and say I’m glad that happened. If it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be where I am today. Eventually it turns out OK and it’s not the end I thought it was.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayer subsequently instructed her team to find her next opponent and has targeted Ireland’s undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor or Belgium’s top contender Delfine Persoon.<\/span><\/p>\n