LAS VEGAS — The journey to crown an undisputed women's junior lightweight champion began on Friday when Mikaela Mayer squared off with Maiva Hamadouche in unification bout. 

We ended up getting one of the best fights of 2021 as Mayer and Hamadouche slugged it out for ten rounds. But when it was all said and done, Mayer used her power and superior skill in the later rounds to overcome Hamadouche's aggressive style to win via unanimous decision (100-90, 99-91, 98-92) retain the WBO women's junior lightweight title and gain the IBF belt. DAZN News had the fight scored 97-93 for Mayer.
 

Coming in, many pundits felt Mayer (16-0, 5 KOs) would try to stay on the outside and work off the jab with Hamadouche being relentless and coming forward. Instead, we saw the 2016 Olympian come forward and fight fire with fire.

“(I showed) I could bang it out on the inside," Mayer said in her post-fight interview. "That wasn’t really the entire game plan," Mayer said. "The game plan was to use my jab, but in the back of my head, I knew she was going to keep it close, keep me on the inside. Even though we trained for that, just being able to do that for 10 straight rounds taught me a lot.

“This is everything I trained for. It really hasn’t even sunk in, but I’m proud of what I did. I’m proud of my team. We’re going to celebrate this one, for sure.”

The first round set the tone for the entire title clash. Mayer and Hamadouche rushed to the middle of the ring and started slinging the leather with neither woman taking a back seat. After that, every round started the same way. Regardless of the horrific scorecards that didn't reflect what we saw inside the ring, it was a close contest heading into the second half of the fight. That's when Mayer took over. 

Mayer's constant pounding of the body wore Hamadouche down. That gave Mayer the opening she needed and went upstairs with one uppercut after another. Even though she continued to come forward, Hamadouche didn't have the same pop in her shots that she did early on, which allowed Mayer to secure the victory to remain undefeated.

Here is what happened at Mikaela Mayer vs. Maive Hamadouche.