LAS VEGAS – Mikaela Mayer’s highest-profile fight will have to wait.

As much as Mayer might want to test herself against former U.S. Olympic teammate and her “sister,” Claressa Shields, she is fully focused on securing a shot at accomplishing something Shields has done in three weight classes. Now that she defeated England’s Sandy Ryan more decisively in their 10-round rematch, Mayer has turned her attention toward a showdown with another welterweight based in the UK, Welsh southpaw Lauren Price.

“I think that I’m definitely gonna finish what I started at 147,” Mayer told a group of reporters Saturday night following her second win against Ryan. “Lauren Price is the obvious next choice. And obviously I’ve been wanting to go undisputed for years. And that was my original goal at [junior] lightweight, so this is my chance to do it again.

“So, I see us having that conversation with Lauren Price’s team. You know, and 154 later down the road. I think that Claressa still needs to get down. You know, she’s still up there at a higher weight, so she needs time. But 147 first.”

Price (9-0, 2 KOs) owns The Ring, IBF, IBO, WBA and WBC belts. Mayer (21-2, 5 KOs) successfully defended her WBO welterweight title for the first time by beating Ryan (7-3-1, 3 KOs) unanimously in their 10-round rematch at Fontainebleau’s BleuLive Theater.

The 30-year-old Price added the IBF welterweight title to her collection when the 2021 Olympic gold medalist soundly outpointed England’s Natasha Jonas in a 10-rounder March 7 at Royal Albert Hall in London. The 40-year-old Jonas (16-3-1, 9 KOs) nicked Mayer by split decision in their 10-round fight for Jonas’ IBF belt in January 2024 at Echo Arena in Liverpool, Jonas’ hometown.

Las Vegas’ Mayer, 34, is more motivated than ever to become an undisputed champion in a different weight class, in part because she hasn’t been able to land a rematch with rival Alycia Baumgardner. Mayer lost a split decision to Baumgardner in their 130-pound title unification clash in October 2022 at O2 Arena in London.

Detroit’s Baumgardner (15-1, 7 KOs, 1 NC) is expected to return to the ring July 11 against an opponent to be determined on the undercard of the highly anticipated third bout between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions, which represents Serrano, signed Baumgardner recently.

Shields, meanwhile, sat ringside to watch Mayer defeat Ryan in more impressive fashion than she did six months earlier in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Mayer and Shields spoke after the press conference and acknowledged that they want to fight each other.

Mayer is willing to go up to the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds to fight Shields (16-0, 3 KOs), who was once the undisputed champion in that division. Shields, 30, most recently defeated Danielle Perkins (5-1, 2 KOs) by unanimous decision in their heavyweight title fight February 2 at Dort Financial Center in Shields’ hometown of Flint, Michigan.

Shields weighed in at 173½ pounds for her fight with Perkins. She hasn’t boxed within the junior middleweight division since March 2021, when she shut out Canada’s Marie Eve Dicaire (18-2, 1 KO) on all three scorecards at Dort Financial Center.

Fighting Mayer might become more appealing to Shields if Mayer can beat Price because Shields could fight another undisputed champion for the first time. Other than a rematch with British rival Savannah Marshall (13-1, 10 KOs), there aren’t many marketable, makeable fights for Shields that would also be considered challenging.

“It’s nothing personal between me and Claressa,” Mayer told The Ring recently. “She is considered No. 1 pound-for-pound and I would just like to fight the best.”