"Floyd and I need to talk face to face, that's what is pending, but no, a lawsuit hasn't been filed, although plenty of attorneys that I know are sick of undisclosed things that's been going on...I would like to say this, am I mad at Floyd? No, but I am disappointed at some of the actions the last couple years because we never talked at all," stated former world champion Mickey Bey, who opened up on his now rocky relationship with his promoter, Floyd Mayweather. Check it out!
PC: Mick, I'm sure you're hitting me up because you read the article that went up on FightHype about ungrateful fighters. What were your initial thoughts when you saw your name in it?
MB: I didn't even read it myself, but somebody read it to me, so I shook my head after hearing what was said about me.
PC: I'm sure there are things on there about you that you won't dispute, like the fact that you had a falling out with Brad Goodman from Top Rank and Floyd Mayweather got you out of that deal. Is that accurate, and if you can, elaborate on that matter?
MB: It's accurate, but it's not that big of a deal. It's the past and if I saw Brad tomorrow and he reached his hand out for a handshake, he would get a handshake. And yes, Floyd bought me out of the deal. I knew him [Floyd] since '02 and his dad trained me before I had one pro fight and was training me then and now, so it was a good fit. But no shade to Top Rank. I got nothing but great vibes from Bob Arum since I first met him. He's smart and charming.
PC: The term "big headed" was used to describe you after becoming a champion and it was also mentioned that you were trying to live beyond your means, purchasing a Bentley. Could you confirm or deny those allegations?
MB: Me being big headed is probably the furthest thing from the truth. Anybody that knows me would laugh if they heard that. And that's "he say-she say" obviously. He said it himself, "I heard this from this source and that source" in the article instead of getting it from the horse's mouth. Floyd knows I'm not like that and anyone else does who knows me. I'll give a stranger the shirt off of my back and treat them as an equal, whether they are rich or poor, and in fact, I did something similar just 2 days ago. I also do massive charity and I'm giving all the time; part of the reason I have two proclamations (keys to the city) in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. And as far as the Bentley goes, it was given to me from a sponsor; no need for me to front. I am who I am.
PC: Your time at Mayweather Promotions was kind of summarized in that article. Could you give me your summary of your time with the promotional company?
MB: I'll say this, everything was good from the time I met Floyd up until his cousin was brought in as my manager. I'll say a few months after that is when things changed. Now I'll say this, I'm going to keep it 1,000; he [Dejuan Blake], in my opinion, knew very little about boxing and even less about the business of boxing. But the type of dude I am, I like to find positive out of the situation and better the things for the both of us. Floyd Sr., which is my trainer, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring in some help on the management end because my manager was green, and this isn't a knock on him because everyone has to start somewhere. So after about a year, I approached him about a great adviser helping us and this adviser is great at what he does and his work in this game is speaking for itself. When I approached my manager at the time about the person who was willing to help us, not me, but us, to my surprise, he strongly disagreed to the point that we debated well over an hour and he expressed how he didn't want anybody else telling him anything and he wanted to learn from his own mistakes. But I told him I'm the one who is paying for the mistakes and this is my life, not an Xbox game. So the conversation ended with him saying, "Okay, I'll ask Floyd and see what he thinks." I knew from that moment I wasn't about to get thrown under a bus, but I was about to get thrown under a train. So after that, I only spoke to Floyd maybe once or twice to this day and got the cold shoulder because I know for a fact what was said to Floyd didn't come out of my mouth. It was presented to him differently, like, "Mickey doesn't feel like we're doing a good job," when in all actuality, the only thing I said was until Dejuan got some more experience, could we bring him in some help. Now mind you, that was early 2014, so that was almost 3 years ago.
Now here is the time where things went way over board and I want Floyd and every reporter and fan who were aware of me vacating my belt to listen clear because you guys got complete BS! And I'm going to tell you 1,000% facts how it happened. Going into my first title fight with Miguel Vazquez; I got an offer to fight him. It was said nobody wanted to fight him at the time because he was very hard to beat and awkward. At that time, he only lost to Tim Bradley and Canelo Alvarez, both bigger guys. So he got a lightweight belt and had it for five years. So going into our fight, I had major hand injuries, which were known throughout our whole team. So the question was, was I sure that I wanted to fight like this and I said, "Yes, I will find a way to win no matter how ugly it might be and get surgery after the fight." To his credit, the fight would've been hard regardless because he's crafty, but I did pull out a close decision. Now still I was getting the cold shoulder big time and ignored from my promoter. Moving forward, I'll go into almost 2 months after the Vazquez fight, I went ahead and got the hand surgery close to November. The surgeon told me the surgery will take around 5-6 months minimum to recover, so I said cool. I took a little break and got back in the gym around March 2015 just to warm up some. After a week or so in the gym, my manager came to me and told me what at the time was the best news I ever heard almost. I remember exactly what I was doing. I was jump roping in the ring and he came to me and told me that Manny and Floyd was going to fight in May and asked me do I think I would be ready because they were going to put me on the pay-per-view undercard against my mandatory [Denis Shafikov], who was a Top Rank fighter. He also told me I would make a great payday, so obviously I told him, "Most definitely, I'll take that!" P, I couldn't stop smiling to point that Floyd Sr. and my assistant trainer knew he told me something good. So they came up and asked me what did he say and I repeated what my manager told me and they were happy for me. I even called my mom after the gym and I told her she was about to retire from work in a couple months and she couldn't believe it. Now my trust was in my managers hands from what he had just told me. I was waiting for it to get put together, but it got to the last day before the purse bid and everyone was calling me on the phone saying congrats about fighting and I asked how did they know. They said it was all over the internet, but it wasn't on Floyd's card like he promised. Instead it was an ESPN 2 card two days before the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. I knew nothing about this and I was in shock. I read on the internet that I agreed to the fight on ESPN 2 and never knew anything about it. So I called my manager and he was acting lost and said so and so for Mayweather Promotions must have did it without telling me, so I called the person at Mayweather Promotions and he told me that my manager knew all about this all along and agreed to it. So of course I was disappointed. So after that, I saw that it wasn't anywhere near what he told me money-wise and it being on a completely different card that I wasn't even told about; and remember, I was willing to fight because of what he initially promised me, being on the biggest card in history for the biggest purse I had ever made. My hand wasn't completely healed at the time, but for the biggest money and to be a part of the biggest card ever, that's a sacrifice I was willing to make. And let's be clear, it wasn't 200K for the ESPN 2 fight. It was lower. I'm just stating facts, and I'm not and never said it was chump change, but it was a far stretch from what he told me.
So I told the person at Mayweather Promotions that I was promised to fight on the May-Pac card and for a totally different figure. So the fight got canceled on ESPN 2 so I can let my hand heal and it went back to a purse bid .So this time, at around midnight the night before purse bid, I get a call from Mayweather Promotions and it was said to me that they wouldn't bid in the morning because I should have just took the ESPN 2 fight. Now I am heated because that was spiteful; not only what he told me, but doing it late the night before .So Top Rank won the bid the next morning without Mayweather Promotions bidding and the other side won with a very low, low number and they put the fight in China. My take would've been around
maybe 25K or less. I won't say Top Rank was told or wasn't told that my side wasn't going to bid, but obviously I ended up not taking the fight and got a lot of dirt threw on my name and heard the craziest things like, " I heard you asked for 2 million, 1.5 million," all type of BS! And it's like, oh really? I fought John Molina and all of the other fighters for very low 5-figure paydays. Everyone please realize that 5 figures is from 10,000-99,000s and 6 figures is 100,000-900,000s, so it could be the lowest figure on both 5 and 6 figures, but you get threw off by just hearing 6 figures or 5 figures without hearing the exact number and it's intended to make you look "ungrateful", but regardless, I never had a complaint ever and Floyd knows this!
PC: You haven't fought since June and you've kind of flown below the radar since the Barthelemy fight. You even declined an interview with me before the fight. What was up with you before and after your last fight and why have you been so silent?
MB: Let me answer your question by saying after I vacated the belt, I bit the bullet and took two undercard off-TV fights for 20K against whoever they brought to me. One fight got canceled in September 2015 because he was way over weight. I wasn't tripping. Next it was strange that I got offered another off-TV fight again in December 2015. I fought a scrappy undefeated fighter out of Philly and won and never complained, even though my opponent got the same purse as me; a guy who just won a belt the fight before. But I was paid the same as 8-round off-TV fighters that were on the same card. No shade to them, that's great. I did it with no complaint. I smiled and went about my business. Now if that's not sacrificing, what is? I don't regret that or complain about it to this day. Now a couple months later, I talked to Mayweather Promotions and I was asked what I wanted next. I explained that I heard people saying me and Rances [Barthelemy] would be a good fight and I just came off a low payday, so I felt it was normal, like any other championship fighter, to ask for the best payday possible. And also because my mom was fighting cancer and I let him know I need to help her. He agreed that it would be a big fight because he just won my vacant belt. My manger still had me on contract for his 3rd year, but I haven't heard from in months at this time, so I was in communication with Mayweather Promotions. About a month before the Barthelemy fight, my contract with my manager ended. My offer for the fight came after that, which was shocking it was 5 figures! To me, it didn't add up because this was somewhat of a big fight at least and a main event on Spike through PBC with a two-time champ against a one-time champ and in his backyard. The way a lot of things happened during that whole process before that fight was beyond crazy. It's a lot more to it, but Ill leave it at that because if I got shitted on all this time and was being silent, just imagine how much more dirt I'll get unnecessarily thrown on me if I discussed the circumstances surrounding that fight. I think for Floyd to call me ungrateful is unfair because he really doesn't have a valid reason to personally call me that. Top Rank made Floyd millions of dollars and he said he was in a "slave" contract, so that's not ungrateful?
PC: Is there a pending lawsuit against Mayweather Promotions from you, and if so, what are you hoping will come from it?
MB: Floyd and I need to talk face to face, that's what is pending, but no, a lawsuit hasn't been filed, although plenty of attorneys that I know are sick of undisclosed things that's been going on. But no, my call is for Floyd to get with me.
PC: I think we covered all points, but is there anything else you would like to say before I let you go that we missed or didn't cover?
MB: I would like to say this, am I mad at Floyd? No, but I am disappointed at some of the actions the last couple years because we never talked at all, let alone about the things that were just stated. We spoke once a little bit recently, but it ended with him saying that he would get back to me, but he never did. But that was no surprise. I stood back patient wishing on a star hoping things would get back to where it once was, but let me be clear, Floyd has been great since I met him about 14 years ago to both me and my bro, who first moved out here in '03 with just a one-way ticket, 200 bucks, and faith. Floyd took him in like family and I can say a ton of good things regarding Floyd and we still love him to this day for that and it will never change, but that's just how we get down. I just look at a lot of it as "Money" Mayweather and not Floyd. And I'm not saying it's nothing really wrong with "Money" May because we got love for him, but Floyd and "Pretty Boy" was a little bit different. But we have love for him and his family and nothing will top the good deeds he did for me and my bro, and I'm not talking money; I'm talking the fact that our prayers that was sent up got answered and got sent down on earth and landed in Floyd's hands back in the day and in result of that, he took my brother in. It's a whole lot more to the story that maybe we can touch on another time, but I would like to say that I'm open to sit down with Floyd for the first time in a couple years and act like none of this never happened, but remember, I can only speak for me and not him. I look at it like each day we wake up, it's a new day and we can't get the time back behind us, so let's dead the petty shit. It's lame as hell to throw shots on the net without talking to me. Fuck the "sources" and let's move forward. I'm open to speak with anyone else as well. The only thing I did was recite a story on which were facts that took place and in no way, shape, or form am I trying to paint a picture of anyone as a whole; that was just a part of my story and that story. And it wasn't personal, it was real, so whatever you readers thought about anyone before reading this, then keep it that way because that's just my personal story on those incidents. God bless everybody and stay tuned; hopefully I'll also be back soon and at my best ever! I'll keep everyone updated and let you know if Floyd will keep ignoring me and just keep listening to his "sources" or simply talk to me direct so the word-twisting can finally end! I appreciate everybody who have and will send positive vibes my way on this journey.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]