"I ain't gonna forget what he did, but I ain't gonna hold a grudge because I'm all about positivity, but what he did was wrong and he knows what he did. I'm flat out blaming Brad Goodman. He knows what he did and he flat out told me he had a problem with what me and Floyd did. Good thing Floyd don't know because Floyd would handle it different from me. You know how Big Floyd isÂ… man, you can't just snatch somebody off of a televised fight and put them the first or second fight the day of the fight. That was just blatant. You could have told me this a week before. That was just blatant," stated undefeated lightweight contender Mickey Bey, who discussed the circumstances surrounding his decision to withdraw from his fight this past Friday, his future plans, and more. Check it out!
PC: A lot has been said about you in the last couple of days. I was excited to see you fight on Friday night and you didn't fight. Tell us the real story of what went down.
MB: Ah man, you know like I know; it's just like when I called you. You had your boys over and ready to watch the fight. Just like every site reported, my fight was supposed to be the other TV fight. There ain't no getting around that. Brad [Goodman] can say what he wants to say, but you know, at the end of the day, you can look on every website, including yours, and it says my fight was supposed to be one of the headlining fights; a 10-round fight. The day of the fight, I'm actually taking a nap because the commissioner, Keith Kizer, told me that since I was a TV fight, my fight was supposed to come on at 7:00 PST. He said, "You don't have to be here until about 4:30-4:45, a little before 5:00 since you one of the TV fights." So I'm taking a nap and I got my phone off. When I turn it on, I got a text message saying I was supposed to be there at 3:30 and hurry up and come now. I was like, "Huh?" So I go down there and by the time I go, it's like 4:40, like they initially told me to come down. I get down there and they are like, "Hurry up and get ready; you fighting at 5:30." I was like, "Huh? 5:30? What time the fights start?" They were like, "5:30." I'm like, "Is that what time TV starts?" They go, "Nah, you not on TV; you the first or second fight now."
How did that sound? I couldn't believe it, so I call Brad to get an explanation and all he said was, "I'm eating lunch," and hung up on me. I can't put it on Top Rank or the promotion. It had to be a little bit of them too, but I pretty much know it was Brad because Brad has had problems ever since me and Floyd Sr. went and met with Bob Arum in the office. I guess he felt like we shouldn't be able to meet with my promoter and we should go through him for everything. He got mad and he told me Wednesday that he had a problem with it and I was tripping then because it's like, "You carrying a grudge because I met with my promoter?" How does that sound? So he just wanted to belittle me and show me he was bigger than me in some kind of way and say, "I'm gonna cancel your TV fight and put you first or second fight out." The biggest problem I had was everybody that came there was there to see me. I sold all of the tickets. I had working class people fly in who took vacation from work to come to see me fight from all around the country. They came to see me fight, and for him to have the audacity to not only take me off of TV, but to make me the first or second fight, an undefeated fighter in a 10-rounder and a top class fighter, was really a slap to my face. And then to tell me, "Oh, I'm eating lunch," and then hang up on me; a lot of cats that came up how I did would have handled it in another way. All I said was, alright, this guy want me to basically put on some clown shoes and a clown nose and just go in there. My trainers weren't even there yet. They knew we weren't supposed to be there until almost 5:00.
PC: So they basically wanted you to wrap your own hands?
MB: That's exactly what they wanted me to do. I was asking other people what was going on and they kind of looked down and didn't offer any explanation about it. I knew it was strictly Brad because he told me 2 days ago that he had a problem and I hadn't talked to him pretty much since I had that meeting with Bob. I told you how good the meeting with Bob went when me and Floyd met with him. I guess he felt he is my promoter and I should have talked to him. It was like he felt me and Floyd didn't have the right to talk to our own promoter. He had a problem with that, so I guess he wanted to show me Friday that he can do what he wants to do and pull something off like that.
PC: Looking at his rebuttal, he is pretty much saying you were getting paid the same money and you should have just fought, and it was ESPN's call and not his because they didn't like your opponent.
MB: Come on, this opponent was the same caliber of like a Grady Brewer, and they got the opponent. ESPN interviewed me a week ago about the fight saying it was going to be a good fight. They couldn't wait to see the fight on TV; it was a good co-feature. This guy has fought John Molina, David Diaz, and Bobby Pacquiao. He beat some good fighters and he is a natural welterweight. He is the one that got the opponent; that's the matchmaker, so he's telling me he didn't do his job if his argument is correct about them not liking the opponent. That was a big lie right there, man. He might as well apologize and be done with it. And then, about the purse, I was getting my minimum. For anybody that's not boxing and don't know what a minimum purse is, that's when the contract says legally the least you can get paid is $1. That's basically what I was getting, my minimum purse for TV. To say I was gonna make the same thing off TV, I had to because I was getting my minimum purse on TV and I didn't even complain about that. My minimum purse was what I had to get off TV because I was getting my minimum on TV, which was bad enough, but I didn't even complain about that. I just wanted to put on a show because Bob had said that after that, we were gonna get a title shot. So I wasn't too much worried about it and that's why I'm not putting the blame on Bob. Everything had went well with Bob Arum, but Brad was bitter about it. He sat in on the meeting when we had the meeting. He came in there and had a problem with that.
PC: Just to address the people that will be saying you should have just fought, got paid, and dealt with this after, what do you say to those people?
MB: Well, if I would have fought, I would have had to wrap my own hands and I just got over a hand injury for 2 years. I could have possibly re-injured my hand. And if you are a fan, you shouldn't want to see me fight if I was just to let somebody just do that to me. What do you think I would do in the ring? I'll definitely fold under pressure. You shouldn't want to follow somebody that will fall for anything. I got somebody telling me to just wrap my own hands and fight in 30 minutes; I know you were supposed to be on TV, but just put your clown shoes on and your clown nose and fight, and then tell the people that flew in from all over the country to see you fight that you already fought when they get here. I would have to tell them, "I didn't fight on TV at 7. I fought before the 4-round fights." How you gonna put a 10-round fight on before 4-round fights? I had people from the east coast and the south flew in and they were serious because it was blatant. I just want the fans to know you shouldn't follow a person. I'm a man of character and with a good spirit. At the end of the day, you shouldn't want to follow somebody that don't stand for nothing. That ain't even somebody you should want your kids to look up to. If I am willing to do anything like that, somebody could put a crack pipe to my mouth and tell me to smoke it. Should I have done that too? It was plain cut and dry.
I ain't gonna forget what he did, but I ain't gonna hold a grudge because I'm all about positivity, but what he did was wrong and he knows what he did. I'm flat out blaming Brad Goodman. He knows what he did and he flat out told me he had a problem with what me and Floyd did. Good thing Floyd don't know because Floyd would handle it different from me. You know how Big Floyd is. If Floyd knew all of the stuff he said about him and knew that Brad had a problem with him wanting to meet with the promoter as a world-class trainer and let the promoter know he has a world-class fighter and want to get me a title shotÂ…you basically saying, "Why Floyd come up in here and question what's going on?" He lucky Floyd don't know all of this. It would have probably been another fight.
PC: Where do you go from here?
MB: Of course I'm gonna talk to Bob because I'm sure Bob is not aware of what's going on. I'll talk to him and let it flow from there and see what happens. I just want everybody to know the truth and know the real. I was born at night, not last night, and I'm done doing those edited interviews because they have a few people put their own spin to the interview and take quotes from me and then put it out how they want to. I'm not doing those types of interviews no more. They tried to make it look likeÂ…come on, man. I'm a hard worker. I done fought killers for free in the amateurs; you think I'mÂ…man, you can't just snatch somebody off of a televised fight and put them the first or second fight the day of the fight. That was just blatant. You could have told me this a week before. That was just blatant.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]