On Saturday, April 15 of 2023, at London’s Copper Box Arena, the former unified junior lightweight champion Mikaela Mayer (17-1, 5 KOs) will make her lightweight debut against the former two-time junior welterweight world champion Christina “Medusa” Linardatou (14-2, 6 KOs).
The WBO interim heavyweight title fight between unbeaten British knockout artist Joe Joyce and Chinese contender Zhilei Zhang will have Mayer-Linardatou as the co-main bout.
Olympian Mayer, who joined Top Rank in 2017, won the WBO junior lightweight title by a majority decision against Ewa Brodnicka in October 2020. The Los Angeles native successfully defended both the WBO and IBF belts against Maiva Hamadouche the following year. In her most recent contest, Mayer lost for the first time in her professional career by a narrow split decision against Alycia Baumgardner at London’s O2 Arena. Mayer wants to avenge her lone setback, but first, she'll move up to lightweight to meet Linardatou, the only woman to beat Baumgardner in the professional ranks.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Linardatou came to Greece as a young girl, where she discovered her passion for boxing. When she was 26 years old, she left her home country and went back to start her professional career thereby knocking out Claribel Ferreras in the first round. Before failing to beat Delfine Persoon in 2016 for the WBC lightweight world championship, the 34-year-old had gone unbeaten. In order to earn the vacant WBO junior welterweight championship, Linardatou recovered with four further victories, including victories over Baumgardner and Kandi Wyatt. After losing her 140-pound championship to Katie Taylor in 2019, Linardatou won it back in February 2020 by unanimous decision against Prisca Vicot.
Image Credit: ESPN