A heated back and forth before a bout is every promoter's dream, particularly if there's history between the fighters, someone has a point to prove or there's a belt on the line. In the case of Sandy Ryan and Mikaela Mayer, it's all of the above.
Mayer has made no secret that her feud with WBO welterweight champion Ryan is deeply personal. It involves a coaching team, a bitter war of words and on Sept. 27, a huge fight at Madison Square Garden for Ryan's belt (Live on ESPN, 10:30 p.m. ET.).
Ryan, (7-1-1 3KOs) started working full time under "Coach Kay" (Kay Koroma) and Flick Savoy after her fight with Jessica McCaskill in September 2023. Mayer (19-2 5KOs), who had been training with Koroma for almost a decade, felt betrayed.
In Mayer's opinion, she was looking to move up from lightweight, the two were on course to fight, and Ryan coming into the mix wasn't acceptable. The town wasn't big enough for the two of them.
Mayer left Coach Kay to train under Kofi Jantuah after her defeat to IBF welterweight champion Natasha Jonas in January. The fight with Ryan was announced in August. Since then, it has been tense between the two to say the least.
"I got the fight against Jonas and [told] Coach Kay, 'Sandy can't come back here anymore...' [jokingly] and I thought he would totally on board with that," Mayer told ESPN.
"On my way to the Jonas fight, he tells me [he's] bringing in Sandy. I flipped on him a little bit and I'm like 'Why would you bring in my competition?'
"He goes 'No, [I'll] give her to [Savoy].' There was no transparency. I called Sandy and she admitted that Kay was training her. I told him 'I'm not OK with this. No one has been honest with me.'"
The fallout has been public, and Mayer has had no issue making it personal with Ryan, who she believes has been "sneaky."
"I think she's kind of a weak-minded individual and I've heard some things in the past, [that] nobody even likes her in the UK... That's why she had to come all the way to my country with my coaches," Mayer said.
For her part, Ryan says she couldn't care less and reached out to Mayer to squash any beef. It didn't go down too well.
"I've known Kay for years going back from the amateur days when I was on the Great Britain team," Ryan told ESPN. "I had a change in teams and Kay was there to help me out and said: 'I can give you a team and Flick can be your trainer over here [America]' and that's how it went. I reached out because people were saying to me in the gym that Mikaela Mayer wasn't happy.
"Who does she think she is? She thinks that the world owes her everything, it doesn't.
"She's been calling my name out from then and since I've been training over in America. She's just been salty about it. So we're here now and have to have to shut her up."
The two will meet in New York and settle it in the ring. Ryan wants to keep her belt while Mayer is looking to bounce back after defeat to Jonas. It has all the makings of an explosive contest.
"I'm expecting Sandy to press forward," Mayer said. "I know she wants to just knock me out. She's going to try and sit on her punches and knock me out and that's going to be her downfall. I'm going to be boxing, moving and picking her like I always have, even back in the amateur days."
Ryan is also anticipating a tough contest.
"I'm expecting a good Mikaela Mayer because she's a good fighter and you can't take away what she's achieved in the sport. You can't expect anything less otherwise you'd be overlooking your opponent and I'm not doing that," Ryan said. "So I respect her, what she's done in the sport [but] I don't respect her as a human being."