Switching coaches in boxing? Nothing new. At the end of the day, the goal is simple—keep winning. Look at how many times Anthony Josua switched trainers in the past few years. Even look at Gervonta Davis. He’s worked with Calvin Ford and Kenny Ellis for his entire career, yet for his last fight, he trained under Barry Hunter. No drama, just business. Everyone on his team was cool with it, supporting each other all the way. However, that’s not the case with Mikaela Mayer.

The 34-year-old is gearing up for a rematch with Sandy Ryan, the same fighter she beat last year to claim the WBO welterweight title. If you don’t remember, Mayer won by majority decision, but here’s the twist—she wanted the rematch. Why? Because Ryan wasn’t in the right headspace that night, as the Brit revealed. The Derbyshire native had just gone through the whole “paint incident” before the fight, and Mayer didn’t want people saying she won against someone who wasn’t fully prepared. So, they decided to run it back.

Rumors flew that it was Mikaela Mayer’s team who threw the red paint at Ryan as she left her hotel for Madison Square Garden. But Bob Arum himself shut that down, saying, “It either could’ve been a random act by somebody or it could’ve been somebody that had a beef against Sandy Ryan. But the one thing I’m sure about is Mikaela had nothing to do with it.” So, after all that drama, you’d think we’d finally get a clean rematch, right? Nope. More chaos incoming! And honestly, what’s a big fight without a little drama? With just a day to go before they step back into the ring, Sky Sports Boxing just dropped a bolt out of the blue. “Kay Koroma called Mikaela Mayer ‘a backstabber’ after Mayer reacted angrily to the coach switching allegiances to work with Sandy Ryan,” the caption on their X post read. Well, things just got messy.

Mayer’s former trainer Kay Koroma, who switched sides to train Sandy Ryan last year, recently went off in an interview with Sky Sports Boxing earlier today. And let’s just say—he’s not happy. “Damn, would I really be Mikaela Mayer’s friend? Would I really trust Mikaela Mayer?” he asked. “If you can be with somebody for so long, right? And they can just turn their back… talking bad about you… Is that somebody should ever be your friend?” Brutal!

And now, the former trainer who saw Mikaela Mayer’s rise from a Team USA Olympian in 2016 to unified super featherweight champion thinks, if he makes her mad, “She might stab me in my back.” According to the ex-trainer, he had Mayer’s back for years (8 years, to be specific). No matter what. If she was in trouble, he was there. If someone was messing with her, he stepped in. But now? He feels completely blindsided. The worst part, he said? No one around Mayer is telling her to stop. “I see the true colors in the people that surround her. And no one’s ever telling her to stop. That’s the sad part,” he lamented. But his complaints don’t end there.

And to be clear, Kay insisted it wasn’t just about coaching. It’s not about Mayer working with someone new (Kofi Jantuah, with Al Mitchell still on her corner). It’s about “respect.” He made a point, too—he’s never gone on Twitter or anywhere else talking trash about Mayer, her team, or even Coach Al. Why? Because, in his words, “Those people, I felt like they were my folks.” “Because this is business,” he added. But Mayer? She took things “personal.” And his final message? He’s not falling into the same trap. “Grow up,” he said in a direct message to the 34-year-old.

While it’s pretty clear that Coach Kay Koroma still isn’t happy about getting fired last year, Mikaela Mayer isn’t losing any sleep over his words. In fact, she’s not even remotely interested in taking him seriously.

If Mikaela Mayer is in the wrong, call her out now

According to her, Kay Koroma is completely flipping the narrative. In her words, calling her a backstabber while playing the victim is just straight-up “gaslighting”. And not just that—she straight-up called it “typical narcissistic behavior.”

From her perspective, he’s the one who made the choice to coach Sandy Ryan. He knew what he was doing. “He’s the one who decided to take on Sandy. I’m the one who had to go and find a whole new team,” the Woodland Hills native pointed out. So, as far as she’s concerned, “He made his bed. So he needs to lie in it.”

Mikaela Mayer’s stance is clear. She said she’s not going to sugarcoat things or protect him. “I’m not happy with the decision he made,” the 20-2 boxer explained. But “It’s his decision” to make. And now, these are the consequences. Simple as that. Her final mic-drop moment? “I haven’t lied. Stop me when I’m lying.”

It’s a tricky situation. On one hand, Mayer has every reason to feel betrayed—this was someone she trusted for years, and suddenly, he’s in the opposite corner, coaching her former opponent. That’s bound to sting. But on the flip side, Koroma is a coach, and at the end of the day, coaching is his job. Fighters switch trainers all the time, and maybe, from his perspective, it wasn’t personal—just business, until Mikaela Mayer took it personally.

So, who’s really in the right here? What do you think?