FAMILY FEUD
The next month, Mayer became the first woman to sign a long-term contract with Top Rank, instantly giving her exposure on national television with ESPN as well. Around the same time, Katie Taylor inked with Matchroom and Seniesa Estrada with Golden Boy. The arms race had officially begun. S hields and Mayer have been two of the main characters in women’s boxing throughout this new era. Shields is the most successful and decorated women’s fighter of all time, especially when considering her
responses to the premise of “I’m on the stranded desert island diet; I can only eat what?” “I don’t lose, baby. You know that,” said Shields with a smile. “OK,” replied Mayer dismissively, flipping her hair. “No weight classes here!” Shields scored with her answer of “sand,” while Mayer flubbed her attempt, prompting good-natured laughter and Shields playfully taunting her. At that point, that seemed like the only round we would ever see between the two. As time went on and Shields’ historic
boxing) in pursuit of the biggest and best fights possible. The seemingly indestructible barriers that stood in the way of a fight between Shields and Mayer were beginning to crumble, and precedents were being set, even if the two didn’t realize it at the time. Shields’ move up to heavyweight at first made the matchup seem utterly impossible, for all the original reasons and more. But something else was happening too. An interesting component of Shields’ public persona has been that as loud and confident as
member of her T-Rex Promotions stable as well. Shields fought Perkins in Flint in February 2025, nearly knocking her out in the closing moments before winning a lopsided unanimous decision. Then, earlier this year, Shields notched a second win over Crews-Dezurn, a woman close
an interest in facing Shields. At first, it was as gentle as a “call out” can possibly be in sports. “She’s number one pound-for-pound, and I want to fight the best,” she told Ring Magazine in 2025. But by the time Shields stepped in the ring to face Crews-Dezurn a second
preference being 160 pounds on the dot and Shields seemingly comfortable with a 163-pound catchweight. “She went up in weight, won a great fight against Mary Spencer, but I am who I am. And I’m happy that she has that confidence, but me and Mikaela
have never sparred before. There’s a reason for that,” Shields told reporters at the most recent Ring Magazine Awards gala. “I’m too good. She sparred everybody else. She never sparred me. And that’s because Coach Al [Mitchell] kept her away from me, and all the coaches at the Olympics kept her away from me. But hey, she wants to fight? Let’s go.” Nearly 10 years after Shields and Mayer ushered in a new era of women’s boxing, the landscape looks drastically different, but some things remain the same. It still remains true that Shields and Mayer are two of its main characters, alongside Taylor, Amanda Serrano and Alycia
amateur triumphs, and Mayer’s resume is enough to guarantee a trip to Canastota the day her name appears on the ballot as well. But up until 2025, their stories seemed destined to be parallel ones, close friends who simultaneously dominated and changed the industry, supporting one another every step of the way. Promoters, networks, weight divisions and, most of all, kinship provided built-in barriers between them, and they seemed to like it that way. The first and only time Shields and Mayer competed on television against one another was in 2019, when they appeared on an episode of Family Feud. The two
Mayer looked more than comfortable taking on Mary Spencer.
time, the polite wish had turned into a genuine campaign. In fact, Mayer was part of the commentary team and at the host desk for the fight, no doubt a nod from a few parties involved that this could stir up intrigue. Mayer played it professionally and straight down the middle in her call of the fight, never giving into the temptation of becoming a pro wrestling-style guest commentator who commandeers the broadcast to lambaste their rival. As Shields took part in her post-fight interview with DAZN’s Chris Mannix, Mayer didn’t storm the ring and cause a scene. She stood by as Mannix asked Shields if she would like to face Mayer, to which she answered, “Absolutely.” In recent months, Shields has turned the temperature up a tiny bit, as both women have discussed at which weight a potential fight would occur, with Mayer’s
Baumgardner. Shields remains with Salita Promotions, having recently inked an $8 million deal in partnership with Wynn Entertainment as well. Mayer concluded her Top Rank deal with her title unification win and is now a member of Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian’s Most Valuable Promotions. It’s perhaps not a coincidence that the two promoters most invested in women’s boxing based on both roster size and money spent, Salita and MVP, are the ones working with the two women who, along with Serrano, might have been most important to its development in the United States over the last decade. Now they have the very real possibility of creating what would be an era-defining, and maybe era- closing superfight between two all-time greats, two “sisters.” Ultimately, all roads lead back to the women who paved them.
enough to have been an emotional confidant and fight wardrobe seamstress. A few months prior to Shields vs. Crews-Dezurn II, Mayer took an unexpected jump up to 154 to face Mary Spencer in Montreal. With the WBC and WBO titles once held by Shields now vacant due to Brakehus’ retirement, it was a calculated risk for Mayer. In a new weight class, against one of that division’s hardest punchers, Mayer wound up being the one bullying the bigger woman, wiping Spencer out on the scorecards to become world titleholder in a third weight class, unified in a second. Sometime during the buildup to facing Spencer, Mayer began mentioning
Shields and Franchon Crews-Dezurn debuted against each other in 2016.
were members of “families” made up of boxers, the Brawlers vs. the Maulers, alongside legends such as Ward, James Toney and Antonio Tarver. Part of the conceit of their faceoff on the show was that it was unfathomable for these two to fight for real. Not only did they feel like family to one another, but physiologically it would be implausible even if they hated one another, separated by 30 pounds at that point with Shields at middleweight and Mayer at junior lightweight. The two played this dynamic up as they were called to face off and guess popular
dominance continued, it began to feel as though she was on an island of her own, professionally speaking. She’d vanquished her two biggest threats, Christina Hammer and Savannah Marshall (the two fights in which any prognosticator at all has ever picked against her), and had become undisputed in three weight classes. Out of necessity, she had to make trips to the mainland to find viable competition and sellable fights to participate in. Shields went down in weight, back up again, back down again, and then all the way up to heavyweight (lower limit of 175 pounds in women’s
she has been in deriding her rivals, she has been equally as supportive of those she counts as friends. But as opposition options began to dwindle, financial offers got larger and competitive drive continued to burn, concessions needed to be made. At a certain point, Shields had to start fighting her friends. First, there was Danielle Perkins, a friend and de facto client as a
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