Fight fans have seen it all in boxing promotion, but the build to the first Sandy Ryan vs. Mikaela Mayer fight still managed to feel like something new.

All fight week this past September, Ryan kept seeing derogatory leaflets with her face on them strewn throughout the streets of New York City. Walking around near Madison Square Garden, where the two were set to fight, she couldn't help but be reminded that she was in hostile territory.

Things escalated, however, when Ryan walked out of her hotel on fight day and was promptly attacked with a can of red paint as she was leaving for the arena. The perpetrator of that attack remains unknown, but Ryan was visibly shaken by the incident. She was advised by her team to withdraw from the fight against Mayer later that day, though Ryan refused to entertain the idea.

Ryan went on to lose a close majority decision in a slugfest that became an instant contender for Fight of the Year. It was the most-viewed women-headlined boxing event on ESPN in almost 20 years. With the added element of controversy stemming from the paint attack, it was clear the rematch would be even bigger. That's why it comes as little surprise that we're seeing part two on Saturday in Las Vegas.

"It made the most sense," Mayer said recently in a heated face-to-face with Ryan on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "We got the numbers back for that fight, people were talking about it. I said OK [to the rematch]. There was a lot of talk about, 'Oh, Sandy only lost because she was distracted before the fight because of the paint incident.' So I kind of want to shut up the controversy and shut up the naysayers. I'll just do it again better."

Despite Ryan's accusations, Mayer insists that neither she nor anybody in her team had any knowledge of the paint attack on Ryan prior to the incident. Mayer said she still has no idea who was responsible.

"It's really not my problem," Mayer said. "Everyone wanted to point the finger at me, but you have to understand, I was getting ready for the fight of my life. Why would I go in and sabotage that? Again, I was coming off two years [of] not having my belt. This was the chance to maybe get it back. And that's just not my style, that's not how I was brought up."

To hear Ryan tell it, she would prefer to move past the incident altogether. While the controversy the paint attack stirred up has helped to promote the rematch, she isn't dwelling on it any longer.

"Look, I don't know [who threw the paint can], but there's obviously a lot that went on, more than just the paint, so I have thoughts," Ryan said. "I just let people think who they think it is, but you know what? The paint incident? I couldn't care less anymore. The rematch is on, so I'm happy. I don't even think about the paint [attack]. People have talked it up that much — I just let them carry on talking about it. But me, I don't care what happened in the past."

The first Mayer vs. Ryan fight was billed as "Ultimate Betrayal." Mayer had left Kay Koroma, her trainer, because she believed that Koroma had started training Ryan while they were campaigning in the same weight class. Ryan claims that she was trained by Flick Savoy in Koroma's gym — not Koroma himself.

Since leaving Koroma, Mayer stated that she believes she was stagnant under him and is glad to have found a new home with trainer Kofi Jantuah. Though with the way things ended between her and Koroma, it's not much of a surprise that Mayer fired shots at her old trainers during her faceoff with Ryan.

"I don't really think that the paint incident affected Sandy," Mayer said. "She says she had an off performance because of it — maybe because her corner is weak. She has a weak corner. Coach Kay left her, abandoned her in the biggest fight of her life [and] sent her in the corner with t-shirt boy Flick, so she didn't have him while he stood in the background just watching. And they hyped her up and stressed her out, and that's what happens [when] you don't surround yourself with a good team."

Mayer believes the way Ryan's team reacted to the paint incident threw Ryan off her game more than the actual ambush itself. She even suggested that the paint attack could've been an inside job to prevent Ryan from going through with the fight.

"I don't think the paint being thrown on Sandy was the issue," Mayer said. "It was the way her team reacted. Her team caused her to be mentally f***ed up. I know Kay, he's a calm person. The fact that he ran into her dressing room, all worked up, screaming at her to pull out of the fight, almost as if his plan didn't work because Sandy wasn't going to pull out of the fight."

"Props to her, she's a fighter, she's going in there to do what she had to do," Mayer continued. "The fact that her team was making a big deal about it, trying to convince her to pull out of the fight — that f***s with you more than getting a little paint thrown on your leg. If I [were] her, I'd look inside her own team. That's just super suspicious to me."

For Ryan, the rematch is about more than just getting her belt back. Ryan revealed to Uncrowned that she'd never faced an opponent she disliked as much as Mayer. This one is personal, she said.

"I just don't like the woman," Ryan said. 

"I just don't like the way you are as a person. It's not anything to do with teams and trainers." 

Sarah Stier via Getty Images

Mayer fired back by accusing Ryan of being too easily rattled. 

"I think everything gets under Sandy's skin," Mayer said. "She's just kind of, like, mentally weak, in my opinion. I think that she really has no backbone. Just look at the way she talks. I don't think that she's confident in her team to try to go to the UK and train with someone else."

"It's only been a few months since she got her belt taken away, and I've been there and it takes time. I don't think that she's really done the work to recover mentally from this. I don't see her as a mentally strong person, she's definitely going through it mentally right now."  

Ryan fired back by condemning Mayer for all her trash talk.

"[It] just shows what kind of woman she is, and that's the only reason I don't like the woman, to be honest, but you [will] see this fight," Ryan said. "She thinks I'm mentally broken and mentally weak and all that, but yeah, you'll see this fight. We'll see who's going to be the broken one after this fight."

Ryan promised to end Saturday's rematch with Mayer inside the distance. Mayer responded by claiming that her punches had a much bigger impact on Ryan than any of Ryan's punches had on her.

"She didn't hurt me with anything," Mayer insisted. "Meanwhile, Sandy was throwing up in the bathroom after the fight. I know I was catching her with shots, and I know I'm better and stronger than I was then. So I plan to come in there and hurt her even more. She was hurt in that fight, I know she was. She can deny it, say whatever she wants, but I have double the fights she has, and I never ran to the bathroom and started barfing after the fight."

Mayer then asked Ryan during the virtual faceoff: "Were you throwing up in the bathroom after the fight?"  

"Yeah, because we put on a great fight," Ryan responded. "And I left everything in the ring. Before the fight, I was emotionally drained from what happened. So I was already drained going into a 10-round fight with you."

"My shots were hurting you more than your shots were hurting me," Mayer said.

"You believe that, Mikaela Mayer," Ryan responded. "You believe that."

"You were throwing up in the bathroom and then went to the hospital because you were concussed," Mayer continued. "I heard you, you were right behind the curtain. I've never thrown up after a fight. Obviously you were hurt."

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