Mary Spencer will defend her WBA junior middleweight title against two-division world champion
Mikaela Mayer at Montreal Casino, Montreal on Thursday, October 30.
In the night's co-feature, Wilkens Mathieu (14-0, 10 KOs) steps up when facing experienced countryman Shakeel Phinn (27-3-2, 17 KOs) over 10 rounds for two regional titles.
Eye of The Tiger president Camille Estephan also announced the undercard will feature a series of unbeaten rising talents across multiple weight divisions, including welterweight Christopher Guerrero (15-0, 9 KOs), hard-hitting light heavyweight Mehmet Unal (13-0, 11 KOs) and exciting 140-pound contender Arthur Biyarslanov (19-0, 16 KOs).
Junior lightweight contender Leila Beaudoin (13-1, 2 KOs) returns four months after stopping former title challenger Elhem Mekhaled, while crowd-pleasing junior lightweight Thomas Chabot (11-0, 8 KOs) will end a 14-month layoff.
Accomplished amateur Erik Israyelyan (2-0, 2 KOs) is also to return at 130-pounds, with all of the above against opponents to be confirmed.
Spencer (10-2, 6 KOs),
The Ring's No. 4-rated junior middleweight, was a decorated amateur who claimed three world championships (2005, 2008 and 2010), a 2011 Pan-Am Games gold medal and an eight-time national champion.
She tore through early competition after turning professional in summer 2021 before Femke Hermans outpointed her over ten rounds twice, first by unanimous and majority decision the following year.
After returning to winning ways, she beat Naomi Mannes on points to claim the WBA interim title in September and was upgraded to full champion as existing beltholder
Terri Harper pursued her championship options back down at lightweight.
Having dominated
Ogleidis Suarez over ten rounds in a triumphant home defence on April 10, she faces a career-best challenge against a two-weight world champion also seeking to make history.
Mayer (21-2, 5 KOs), The Ring's No. 1-rated welterweight contender, was similarly a standout in the unpaid ranks and represented America at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She worked her way up before winning the vacant WBO junior lightweight title with a 10-round points win over Ewa Brodnicka in October 2020. The 35-year-old added Ring and IBF titles when outpointing Maiva Hamadouche the following November.
Mayer narrowly came up short against WBC titleholder
Alycia Baumgardner, losing a split decision in a further title unification.
Unperturbed, she bounced back with two victories before being edged out in another split decision defeat, this time against
Natasha Jonas for the IBF welterweight title. Since then, Mayer has dethroned and subsequently defended the WBO welterweight strap in an
entertaining two-fight series with Sandy Ryan.
Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter@AnsonWainwr1ght