By Chris Robinson
On Friday night at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, undefeated lightweight contender Mickey Bey Jr. (18-0-1, 9 KO's) pulled out of his scheduled ten-round bout against Denver, Colorado's Robert Frankel (30-12-1, 6 KO's).
Bey had been eyeing a television appearance as the co-feature to the Mercito Gesta-Ty Barnett ESPN Friday Night Fights headliner but when advised that his bout with Frankel was going to be off-TV, as it was replaced by the Jesse Magdaleno-Aldimar Silva Santos junior featherweight scrap, he became upset and pulled out of the clash.
Speaking to me late Saturday afternoon, Bey vented his frustrations about the pullout.
“My match got switched, from being, not only on TV but to the first or second fight,” stated Bey. “To me, that was just a sign of disrespect. A ten-round fighter of my caliber, a guy who hardly ever lost a fight in his life, when I show up and to say ‘Hurry up and glove up in thirty’? My corner wasn’t there or none of that.“
Bey insisted that this wasn’t your typical switch, however.
“I know that it was pretty much [Top Rank matchmaker] Brad Goodman,” Bey claimed. “I’m not even going to sugarcoat it. Obviously he had some problems with me and [my trainer] Floyd Sr. meeting with Bob Arum instead of him. This was months back. A couple days ago he let me know he had a problem with it. I guess yesterday was his way of trying to show me that he can change my fight on this day and belittle me.”
An hour or so after my meeting with Bey, I crossed paths with Goodman, who shared his side of the story.
“I don’t have anything against Mickey Bey and the problem he has has nothing to do with last night,” Goodman stated. “That was strictly an ESPN call, not a Top Rank call. ESPN wasn’t happy with a guy like Rob Frankel, who lost his last fight and previous to that lost on ESPN to John Molina, and they decided to go with Magdaleno against a kid that was coming off wins.”
Goodman went on to add that regardless of whether he was fighting on or off television, that Bey was still going to be guaranteed the same amount of money and still seemed in disbelief towards the pullout.
As far as Bey's future with Top Rank, that remains very unclear at this point.
