WBC/IBO super featherweight champion Alycia Baumgardner is brimming with confidence heading into this Saturday’s unification showdown with her division rival, WBO/IBF champion Mikaela Mayer.
The fight takes place at the O2 Arena in London, as the co-feature of the middleweight unification between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall.
Baumgardner scored her biggest win in the UK, which came last November when she defeated Terri Harper in four rounds.
She retained her belts in April, with a dominant decision over Edith Soledad Matthysse.
Baumgardner is not impressed with Mayer or his boxing style.
“The only thing that Mikaela brings is what she always brings, which is an amateur style fighter,” Baumgardner told Sky Sports. “She is a one-dimensional fighter, she looks the same in the amateurs as in the professionals.
“There are levels to this game and I think she’s just at a higher level in her career, I don’t see anything that stands out to me. I’m not looking for fights from Mikaela Mayer, she’s not that impressive to me. Credit to her for she’s done, but she’s not at my level, I just think she’s a one-dimensional fighter. She’s basic, as they say.”
The two fighters have been exchanging words for some time, before an agreement was finally reached to make a fight between them.
Mayer has been highly critical of Baumgardner for her 2018 loss to Christina Linardatou.
“Regarding her comments, Mikaela needs to speak up right now,” Baumgardner said. “She knows I’m a threat, she knows she’s in there with someone she’s never been in there with before, so her focus of her fight is building the fight and feeling better and I get that.
“But it’s comical to me right now, it’s fun to see the things that she says and she really believes them, so it is what it is. I’m already motivated by the fact that I’m fighting her and with her comments it just makes the fight even more. exciting because it shows that there is so much more for people to see.
