Mikaela Mayer continued to show why she is one of the best female fighters in the world.
In her first fight in her home state of California as a champion, Mayer scored a dominant unanimous decision win over Jennifer Han to retain her IBF and WBO junior lightweight titles at The Hangar in Costa Mesa on Saturday night.
The judges scored the bout 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91 for Mayer.
The win continues Mayer on a path for a potential fight for an undisputed title at 130 pounds against either WBC champ Alycia Baumgardner or WBA champ Hyun Mi Choi or the winner of the April 30 undisputed lightweight megafight between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.
“I’ve been pretty clear that I want to go undisputed at 130. Baumgardner and Choi, I’ve been calling them out,” Mayer said in a postfight interview on ESPN. “I want that fight, but if they’re not going to give me that fight in a timely fashion, I’m down, I’m game to go up and challenge the winner of Serrano versus Katie Taylor.”
Taylor and Serrano are No. 1 and No. 2 in ESPN’s women’s pound-for-pound rankings. Mayer is No. 5.
Mayer (17-0, 5 KO) landed 192 of 578 punches, including 41.3% of her power punches (135 of 327). Han (18-5-1, 3 NC, 1 KO), the former IBF featherweight champion from El Paso, Texas, only landed 63 of 384 punches.
Mayer, a 31-year-old from Los Angeles, never allowed Han an opening to even get into the fight. Despite Han creating a cut near Mayer’s left eye in the first round, Mayer was the clearly better performer from the start, continuously using her jab to set up the rest of her punches.
She forced Han to bleed from her nose in the fourth round, appearing to start after a straight left followed by a left hook, and at that point became even a more clearly aggressor in the fight.
Mayer landed 21 power punches in the fourth round, and she dominated the rest of the fight. Halfway through, Mayer had landed 89 of 284 punches compared to 33 of 174 for Han.
“I feel like I did a lot of good things in there. Her movement, I think, is what she does best and it throws you off,” Mayer said. “She gets her spacing in a little bit, so I had to throw her off and stay behind the jab. Coach Al [Mitchell] reminded me to stay behind the jab, set the right hand up. She would duck sometimes and make me miss. I started to go to the body.
“All in all, she’s a tough, durable girl. That’s why we chose her for this fight. We knew she would push me, but I feel like I did well.”
How Mayer beat Han was different than her last fight. Against Maiva Hamadouche, both fighters were throwing punches almost nonstop. Han is a more patient, technical boxer, and Mayer responded with a similar style. Mayer still threw a lot of punches, but also showed enough setup to force Han back multiple times in the ninth round.
Mayer said after the fight she was trying to get the stoppage, and felt she almost finished Han, adding that it’s “another reason why I’m advocating for three-minute rounds.”
In the co-main event, Giovani Santillan (29-0, 16 KO) knocked out Colombian Jeovanis Barraza (23-3, 15 KO) in the seventh round of their welterweight fight. Santillan fought near his hometown of San Diego.
U.S. 2020 Olympian Ginny Fuchs (1-0, 1 KO) won her professional debut at flyweight on the undercard over Randee Lynn Morales (4-4, 2 KO) by stoppage in the fourth round. Fuchs dominated the fight from the opening bell, including a knockdown in the first round.