Promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t want Mikaela Mayer to put the cart before the horse.  

The Matchroom Boxing head believes IBF/WBO 130-pound titlist Mayer must focus on trying to unify her own division before she can think about moving up to challenge the winner of the 135-pound undisputed championship bout between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano.

Hearn was responding to comments made by the 31-year-old Mayer, a Los Angeles native who is promoted by Top Rank Inc., after her dominant victory over Jennifer Han last Saturday in an ESPN main event at The Hanger in Costa Mesa, California; Mayer pitched a near shutout on the cards with a 10-round unanimous decision. After the bout, Mayer (17-0, 5 KOs) called out the winner of Taylor-Serrano, as she was skeptical that she would be able to unify her division with titlists Alycia Baumgardner (WBC) and Hyun Mi Choi (WBA) “in a timely fashion.”

Taylor (20-0, 6 KOs) and Serrano (42-1-1, 30 KOs) are set to face each other later this month, April 30, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, in a show Hearn is promoting with Jake Paul, Serrano’s business partner.  

“No, no, no, no…stop that,” Hearn said during The DAZN Boxing Show when asked about a scenario in which Mayer would face the winner of Taylor-Serrano. “There’s only one fight for Mayer: Alicia Baumgardner. We need an undisputed champion at 130 pounds.”

Baumgardner, the 27-year-old from Michigan whom Hearn promotes, put herself on the boxing map last year when she defeated then WBC junior lightweight titlist Terri Harper with a stunning 4th-round stoppage in Harper’s hometown of Sheffield, England.

Since then, Baumgardner and Mayer have been at each other’s throat on social media. Mayer has been frustrated at what she feels is the reluctance of Baumgardner, as well as the division’s other titlist, Choi (19-0-1, 5 KOs) of South Korea, in pushing for a unification bout. (Choi was on a Hearn-promoted card in December 2020 that featured Gennadiy Golovkin in the main event against Kamil Szeremeta.)

Hearn believes those fights need to happen first before Mayer can be in a discussion to face the undisputed lightweight champion, whether it is Taylor or Serrano. Hearn said the “bad blood” between Taylor and Baumgardner makes for an ideal promotion and would follow in the line of major undisputed matches being made in women’s boxing, including the forthcoming undisputed middleweight showdown between Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall this summer.

Baumgardner (11-1, 7 KOs) will make the first defense of her title against Edith Matthysse (17-11-1, 1 KO) on the undercard of the Conor Benn vs. Chris van Heerden main event at Manchester Arena in Manchester this Saturday, April 16, on DAZN.

“There’s also Choi,” Hearn said. “We need to make that unification. But if Choi’s not ready, let’s just make the fight. We need to make these great fights. Taylor-Serrano, the best fight that could be made. Shields-Marshall great fight…Mayer against Baumgardner, you talk about bad blood. You talk about hot talk. Those two will go at it. Alycia Baumgardner makes her first defense this Saturday in Manchester.”

“Let’s make Mayer against Baumgardner,” Hearn continued. “This is a mega fight for boxing. Two fantastic American fighters who will just go at it out of the ring, go at it in the ring.  It’s a sensational fight for boxing.

"And yes, the winner of that could maybe fight Taylor and Serrano. But first let’s find that undisputed champion at 130 pounds.”