Sandy Ryan vs Mikaela Mayer: The Brit suffers a WBO title loss after being thrown red before the fight

Ryan started slowly against Mayer, who used her trademark speed and kicking skills to build an early lead.

The defending champion came back in the sixth round and landed a strong left-hander shortly afterwards.

Ryan had another big round in the eighth round, but Mayer was up to the challenge of her biggest punches and held firm.

Derby's Ryan, who now has two defeats and seven wins, said the paint incident “distracted me a little bit from my game plan”.

“You saw at the beginning of the fight that I handled her jabbing quite well,” she added.

“I punched her and then started tackling it. But then I obviously put too much pressure on it.”

With the victory, Mayer became two-weight world champion after previously being world champion in the super featherweight division.

The American's move to welterweight has been questioned because of the 17-pound weight jump, but Mayer, who suffered a controversial loss to Natasha Jonas in January and has now beaten one of the division's best welterweights.

“(Ryan) just couldn't handle my timing, so I felt like I won the fight and I'm just glad I made the right decision this time,” she said, referring to the Fight for Jonas.

“I want to finish what I started and remain unchallenged. I came very close to that at super featherweight.

“But my body has outgrown this weight. I feel good now. I feel stronger than ever. I’m still in my prime, as you can see.”

“So I come for the other champions.”