Mikaela Mayer, now a world boxing champion, spent her early teens playing bass in the all-girl Los Angeles metal band Lia-Fail alongside future Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss. Strauss played Mayer to the ring in 2021 for a title-unification bout, highlighting a friendship formed when Mayer was 12 and joining the band; the story shows how both musicians later found international success in very different fields.

Lia-Fail played the Whisky A Go-Go in 2003 and toured the US in 2005 after winning Warped Tour dates, performing alongside acts including Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance. The teenage group travelled without crew, made little money and endured difficult conditions; Mayer left after a second tour, went through a troubled period, then discovered boxing and redirected her life.