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By: Hector Franco
LAS VEGAS – The co-main event on ESPN’s broadcast from The Theater at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada, featured WBO female super featherweight champion Mikaela Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs) making the first defense of her title over veteran and former two-division champion Erica Farias (26-5, 10 KOs).
Mayer would win a unanimous decision over Farias to retain her WBO super featherweight championship. All three judges scored the fight for Mayer with scores of 97-93 and 98-92 twice.
The 36-year old Farias has held titles at lightweight and super lightweight, making 11 defenses of her WBC lightweight title and four defenses of her WBC super lightweight title.
The Argentinean has only been defeated by elite fighters, losing decisions to Jessica McCaskill, Cecilia Braekhus, and Delfine Persoon.
Undoubtedly, Farias represented the toughest test in Mayer’s career thus far.
The bout was highly technical, with both women attempting to take advantage of any mistake made. Mayer used her jab to create more openings to attack Farias; however, the Argentinean has an unorthodox style making it difficult for the WBO champion to land clean punches.
Farias used her veteran experience to land some unique punches, such as a lead uppercut counter from the outside. Anytime Farias was able to get close to Mayer on the inside, she was able to catch the California native with a clean shot. In exchanges, the former two-division champion was able to land left hooks.
While Mayer wasn’t visibly hurt by the left hooks, it was alarming to see how many times Farias was able to land the punch consistently.
The overall theme of the fight, however, was led by Mayer’s best punch, her jab.
By the seventh and eighth rounds, Mayer was in complete control, using her jab to get on the inside of Farias to land uppercuts and body punches that began to wear down the Argentinean native.
Mayer is a fighter that at times starts fights slowly; however, as the rounds go by, she becomes more and more effective. A fight that began competitively became a one-sided showcase for Mayer due to her consistency in using the jab.
Taking home the unanimous decision victory over Farias, Mayer will hopefully be able to keep escalating her level of competition.
The World Boxing Super Series announced earlier this week that their next tournament would be in the women’s super featherweight division. Should Mayer decide to enter the tournament, she would be one of the favorites to win it all.
