[As told by lightweight contender Mickey Bey] A story that a lot of people really don't know about me, in fact, as a pro, this is the first time this story is getting out. I wanted to share it, but basically growing up where I'm from, you hang out with...you know, I'm from the hood in Cleveland, Ohio, so the people you hang with are just friends and you have been knowing them forever while you are growing up, and you don't judge them for what they do because you know them for the good things. I pretty much got caught up in a conspiracy case just for hanging out with some of my guys that was doing some illegal stuff. I was pretty much facing like 10 years and I was locked up by association. I was 18 years old at the time.
I got locked up in one of the worst prisons in the country too. It wasn't really nothing to me and I wasn't shook at all because the people I grew up around was pretty much all that was in there. It was shocking to me that I got locked up. I thought I would at least get probation, but the judge locked me up. I was in there and I ended up getting out early after she investigated the case. I had some people writing letters and helping me out; a lot of powerful people. They got behind me because they knew what kind of cat I was. I ain't never get in trouble or nothing like that, even though I hung with guys that was into some things. I was always the one doing the positive stuff and training and all that. Once I went to the gym, that was my thing. Those cats go left and I go right. I ain't a follower, so I was never really into their situations.
Well, I had a fight that was planned as I was going through the trial and I got locked up, and they were still promoting the event because I had sold a lot of tickets with it being in my hometown. So at the time, I didn't think I would get out. Not only was I in jail, but of course I wasn't training or working out because I didn't think I was getting out. The very last day came around to where if I didn't get out this day, I wasn't gonna be able to fight. The fight was on a Saturday and this was a Thursday. So the guard called me and said, "Pack it up!" That's what they say when you getting out (laughing). He told me to pack it up, so I was like, "Man, this was the very last day." And the crazy thing about it was the radio ads and the TV commercials was coming on about me fighting when I was in there. All of the inmates was like, "Huh? How you fighting when you in here?" I'm sitting there looking at the commercials with them, and of course everybody in there was pulling for me to get out; the guards and the inmates.
I ended up getting out Thursday night at like 2 in the morning, which, shit, I guess that would be considered Friday morning. I had about a day and I was like, "Damn, I ain't in no shape. How am I gonna fight?" But my excitement and my momentum of getting out, I was so excited. This kind of stuff only happens once in your life where you can pull off some miraculous stuff. I pretty much live for them kind of moments, just like I'm doing now in the pros. I went through years of being shelved and being with the wrong people and I still find a way to stay positive and in shape and come out on top. When I get in the ring, my job is to make it look like I ain't take a day off because I'm a competitor and I don't like nothing to shut me down. So in that case, even at 18 years old, I wanted to prove that, even though I was down for a minute and wasn't even training, I wanted to get out and prove that I can beat the best and that's what happened. I ended up winning. And on that card, I think it was me, Berto, Andre Dirrell, and Ward. We was fighting against another country. It was our number ones from the USA against another country. I can't remember what country we were up against.
It was crazy because of course, when I got out, then the story hit. Nobody knew I was in until I got out. The judge had dogged me out in the newspaper, calling me arrogant and all that like, "How you promoting your fight while you are in jail?" But what she didn't realize is, I wasn't promoting the fight. I was in there, so how could I be promoting the fight? But the USA Boxing people was in the courtroom and they talked to her and basically said, "It was their fault. They didn't figure I was getting locked up because I had never been in trouble and I didn't really have no involvement in what went down." They knew who I was and what kind of person I was and they talked to the judge because she was really dogging me out. She was going off on me, but little did she know, the newspaper was writing all of her quotes down. She was like, "Aw, you from the east side of Cleveland, you got braids, and you from the hood. You probably like Mike Tyson anyways. You look innocent, but I'm not buying it." Little did she know, they putting it all in the newspapers and everything. But this the tripped out thing; after the fight, she was drunk up in the stands at my fight. The news interviewed her and she said she was sorry for locking me up and it was a mistake. She apologized, but it was a helluva experience.
And as a matter of fact, as soon as I got out, Andre Ward was the first guy I saw when I got out and went to the hotel. I see Ward and he's like, "Wassup? You about to fight?" Of course when you get out, you gonna be a little bit overweight, a few pounds at least, so I get out and go to the gym at 2 in the morning to spar with my brother and my wind was terrible. I ain't have no gas. I didn't know how I was gonna fight. I just figured I had to fight smart. I came up with a smart strategy and game plan and pulled it off, but I wasn't in no kind of shape. I was small then, so I didn't really gain too much weight, but I probably had to drop like 7 or 8 pounds. I couldn't do it because I only had a few hours. Good thing the guy I was fighting was overweight too. He was like 3 or 4 pounds over, and back then, I was small, so I couldn't lose but a few pounds anyways. But he was over too and I hadn't been able to train for months, so I had gained some weight.
Yeah, it was tripped out though because I remember when I got out, Dre was like, "Man, you about to fight? You crazy!" We sold like 8,000 tickets in that same day. It was all over the radio and the news and the newspaper what had happened. They had it front page of the paper: "Judge lets boxer trade cuffs for gloves." So everybody was not only interested in the story, but to see if I was gonna win. And the special thing about that was that that led to the Olympic Trials being at home there in Cleveland the next year because of the good turnout. So that was pretty cool too. It was good to not only get out, but to see all of my boys in the boxing community fight on that card with me. Like I said, it was Berto, Dirrell, Ward, and Rock Allen, so it was our number one squad.
It's more to it too, so everybody can stay tuned. I got the tape of everything, the newspaper clippings, and all that, so we can put something together and really put the whole story down. And not just that, I got so many amateur fights on tape, we gonna make this into something big. I had a lot on the line and for me to have that whole street code thing, the crazy thing was for me not to have no involvement and just be attacked, and for it to boil down to them basically saying, "You know this guy and he's doing this and doing that. You either admit it and say yeah, or if you say no, you gonna get some time." That was the hardest thing for me to keep the code because I didn't think that was a crime to know people doing things in the street and I guess not report it. Where I'm from, you always grow up around it, so you're always kind of guilty by association. It's like because I'm friends with a dude and hang out with him, that makes me guilty? That's weird to me, but that was the hardest thing just thinking about all of my dreams flashing in front of my eyes.
It started off with me facing 10-15 years and when that first hit me, I was like...in fact, when it first happened, I had just got back from a tournament. It's just a normal thing; you go to a tournament, you get back to the neighborhood and see your boys and it's like, "What's up?" Not knowing what they could have done earlier that day or while I was gone. Everybody got a different story; some people go through it early and some go through it late, but I will say this, I don't regret going through this, and even when I was locked up, I met a lot of good people in there that had it way worse than I did. I grew from it and learned from it, but I could never say I regret going through it because it helped mold me mentally and made me who I am today. I really did meet a lot of good positive people in there.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]