Mikaela Mayer moving to lightweight, will face Christina Linardatou

Mikaela Mayer is set to move up to the lightweight division for her next fight, and will face Christina Linardatou, ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein reports.

Mayer (17-1, 5 KO) is coming off of her first pro loss, a highly controversial decision defeat against rival Alycia Baumgardner on Oct. 15 in England. Mayer, 32, has aggressively called for the rematch, but Baumgardner doesn’t seem that interested, and is herself set to face Elhem Mekhaled on Feb. 4 in New York, which will be an undisputed title fight at 130 lbs.

Mayer has talked about moving up to lightweight before, and though she denied having any trouble making the weight in October — for a fight that got postponed by a little over a month, after the fights had already made weight for the original date — there was at least some talk about that being an issue.

The bigger concern is probably that there are potentially bigger fights at 135, including undisputed champ Katie Taylor, someone Mayer has said she wants to face.

Linardatou (14-2, 6 KO) is a 34-year-old veteran from Greece, a former titlist at 140 lbs. Her losses have come against Delfine Persoon and the aforementioned Katie Taylor, and she has a win over Baumgardner, a 2018 split decision over eight rounds in Louisville. She’s a plenty solid first opponent for Mayer moving up, and has won two straight fights.

No date or location has been set just yet, but March or April would seem a safe bet.