Mikaela Mayer rolls to unanimous decision over Helen Joseph

Junior lightweight boxers Mikaela Mayer and Helen Joseph on Tuesday became the first women to fight in the main event of a Top Rank boxing card on ESPN.

And Mayer became the first woman to win a main event of a Top Rank boxing card on ESPN.

Mayer coasted to a 100-90, 100-90, 99-91 victory over Joseph inside MGM Grand’s Grand Ballroom to preserve her unbeaten record. Top Rank and ESPN have a partnership that dates back to 1980, and the promotion’s founder and chairman, Bob Arum, personally congratulated Mayer after the fight.

“Bob said, ‘Great fight,’ and that the next one will be for the title,” said Mayer (13-0, five knockouts). “We’ve been trying to get a world title fight for a while now. I said, ‘Don’t let (Matchroom Boxing promoter) Eddie Hearn (outbid) us.”

Mayer began boxing at 17 and is a three-time United States national champion who qualified for the United States Olympic boxing team in 2016. She became the first female fighter to sign a promotional contract with Top Rank in 2017 and showcased championship potential while opening her career with 12 consecutive victories.

The 30-year-old Californian was supposed to fight Joseph (17-5, 10 KOs) on Top Rank’s first boxing card amid the coronavirus pandemic June 9, but tested positive for coronavirus antibodies and was pulled from the card. The fight was rescheduled for Tuesday and elevated to the main event Monday after WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring was pulled for testing positive for the virus.

Mayer used her superior skill to wear out the 31-year-old Nigerian over the course of 10 rounds, landing 195 punches to Joseph’s 86, per CompuBox. She peppered Joseph with jabs and power punches, using her fleet footwork to evade punishment.

All without her head trainer and former Olympic coach Al Mitchell, who could not attend the fight.

“He’s my biggest critic, so even though I won every round, I probably didn’t work the body enough,” Mayer said. “I abandoned my jab at times. But I think, all in all, he’ll be happy.”

Two cards announced

Top Rank is returning to ESPN+ (streaming) at noon Saturday with a showdown between heavyweights Agit Kabayel (19-0, 13 KOs) and Evgenios Lazaridis (16-2, 10 KOs) at Seebühne Elbauenpark in Magdeburg, Germany. Kabayel is based in Germany and ranked in the top 15 by three of the top title sanctioning organizations.

On July 21, former featherweight world champion Oscar Valdez (27-0, 21 KOs) returns to Las Vegas to fight Jayson Velez (29-6-1, 21 KOs) at MGM Grand. Valdez, ranked No. 1 at junior lightweight by the WBC and WBO, fought Nov. 30 at the Cosmopolitan, earning a seventh-round technical knockout against Adam Lopez.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.