Who is Mikaela Mayer dating? All we know about the boxer's personal life and relationship
Mikaela Mayer is counted among the most popular fighters across all divisions in the women's boxing realm. The California-born pugilist is viewed by many as a charismatic personality both inside and outside the sphere of combat. The 34-year-old also happens to be in a relationship with a fellow veteran American sportsperson.
Mayer is a former WBO and IBF super featherweight champion and a former interim WBC lightweight titleholder. She fights WBO welterweight champion and longtime rival, England's Sandy Ryan, next. Their high-profile welterweight title showdown headlines a card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, on Sept. 27, 2024.
Who is Mikaela Mayer dating?
Mikaela Mayer has been dating former NFL player Marquette King for the past few years. Born in the state of Georgia, King is a vastly experienced American Football punter.
King played for the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos in the NFL, later competing in the XFL and the UFL. The 35-year-old has lately played as a punter in the UFL's Arlington Renegades. It's believed that a thigh injury adversely affected his NFL career, precipitating a move to the XFL and subsequently to the UFL.
An ESPN report in 2023 highlighted how King utilized his experience of dealing with sports setbacks to help Mayer after her first professional boxing defeat. Similarly, Mayer has been a vocal supporter of her boyfriend in his athletic and miscellaneous endeavors. Moreover, King is a musician -- skilled in the hip-hop, EDM, and pop genres.
Mikaela Mayer reveals how she met Marquette King
On The Schmozone Podcast hosted by The Schmo and Helen Yee in Aug. 2021, Mikaela Mayer and Marquette King were asked about how they met. Mayer asserted that they met on the celebrity dating app 'Raya.'
Mayer lightheartedly indicated that it was 2021 and one shouldn't be embarrassed about using dating apps. She implied that after they connected on the app, King first attended one of her title fights. For context, she'd beaten Ewa Brodnicka in Oct. 2020 and Erica Farias in June 2021 in WBO super featherweight title fights around that time.
It's believed that they started dating in 2020. Various social media posts from the second half of 2020 onwards show them together. Recalling their meeting, Mayer stated:
"I don't know why you [King] are so ashamed of this story. It's 2021. We met on a dating app called 'Raya' for people in the entertainment industry. It's a little more high profile than Tinder, Twitter, Tinder. Yeah. So we met on that. There's a lot of athletes on there, there's musicians on there, whatever. So I do my training camps in Marquette, Michigan. And so I was in Marquette, Michigan. Swiping, and I come across Marquette King."
"And I'm like, it's kind of funny. Gotta -- I had to like that. His name is Marquette in Marquette. Yeah, and he's a king; good last name, go with that. And that was it. He matched with me a couple of weeks later. And [he] then came out to my -- two fights ago, my world title fight -- and just partied with my friends all night until I finished fighting and I met up with him. And if you can party with my psychotic girlfriends all night, then you're a winner."
Watch Mikaela Mayer discuss the topic below (38:00):