Mea will be hoping to follow in Daniels’ wake and earn her third world title. Motu and her team will have a lot to do this year to get her in the best position for a world title fight, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to money and politics.
The brawler from Pukepoto, between Ahipara and Kaitāia, had to be hospitalised with pneumonia and deep vein thrombosis after returning to New Zealand from England in January last year, but overcame any health issues to successfully defend her WBA Oceania super featherweight title against another Indian, Manjot Rattu, last November.
Defending her IBO super bantamweight world title, Mea Motu had a big victory over India’s Chandni Mehra at the Wāhine Toa double-header in Whangārei in December 2023.
And she’s keen to show the rest of the globe that she’s fully back and ready to take the titles from whoever holds them.
Currently, there are two world champions in Mea’s super featherweight division, including IBF, WBO and WBA unified world champion Alycia Baumgardner, another American, and WBC world champion Caroline Veyre of Canada. Baumgardner is under MVP promoter Jake Paul, who promoted Daniels’ most recent win. Baumgardner has been world champion since 2021 and became undisputed champion in 2023, however she was stripped of her WBC title as she wanted to fight over three-minute rounds, instead of the traditional two-minute rounds for women.
Veyre won the WBC world title in February this year after Baumgardner was stripped. Veyre defeated the legendary Belgian boxer Delfine Persoon by unanimous decision. With both world champions having their eyes elsewhere, it is important for Motu to take her next steps by becoming the mandatory challenger for these world titles. This could be done either by a world title eliminator fight or a request to the sanctioning bodies to enforce a mandatory defence, as Motu’s team did against Scotney.
There are a couple of options to make an eliminator fight happen, including IBF and WBO No 1 Puerto Rican Elise Soto, WBA No 3 American Gabriela Tellez or WBC No 2 Canadian Leila Beaudoin. However, Beaudoin is fighting for an interim WBA world title against Colombian Paulina Angel in June.