Mickey Bey Didn’t Lose Faith as his match with Tevin Farmer kept Falling Apart

Published

11 months ago

January 5, 2023

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“I have no illusions that I can fight forever,” says Mickey Bey who turns 40 in six months, “but I have one more run left in me. My goal is to become the oldest fighter to win the world lightweight title,” he says, noting that the record-holder in this regard is Raymundo Beltran who was 36 when he captured the vacant WBO diadem in 2018.

If successful, Bey would become a two-time world lightweight champion as he briefly held the IBF version of the belt. His road to what he hopes will culminate in another title reign begins on Feb. 25 in Atlanta where he meets former super featherweight title-holder Tevin Farmer in a BLK Prime promotion that will serve as the co-feature to a match between Adrien Broner and Ivan Redkach.

“If you look at my pro record,” continues Bey who is 23-3-1 (11 KOs), “you’ll see that I haven’t taken much punishment. In fact, I’ve never had a clear-cut loss.” Indeed, two of those three setbacks – versus Rances Barthelemy and George Kambosos Jr – were by split decision and the other came in a fight that Bey was winning handily until he lost focus in the final round.

John Molina exploited Mickey’s slip-up when they met in a 10-rounder in 2016 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Through the nine completed rounds, Bey was up by a country mile; he had won every round on one of the scorecards. In the 10^th, Molina pulled the fight out of the fire, forcing the stoppage with a barrage of unanswered punches after discombobulating Bey with a short left hook.

“It isn’t like me to showboat,” says Bey, “but I did that night and I paid the price. I was with Floyd Mayweather at the time. Floyd was sitting ringside and I was actually talking at him when Molina cracked me. It was probably a blessing in disguise. It was like God was telling me to stay in my lane.”

In Bey’s mind, he hasn’t suffered a clear-cut loss since his amateur days and he was an outstanding amateur, winner of 170 of 178 fights according to one newspaper report. In 2004, he defeated future lightweight champion Brandon Rios in the 125-pound class in the Olympic Box-Offs. However, there was one more hurdle to pass to earn a ticket to the Summer Games, a new wrinkle in Olympic qualifying, and he failed to accompany the squad to Athens when he lost to an Argentine opponent at the last stand tournament in Brazil. Heading into that competition, Bey was shaking off the effects of pneumonia.

Mickey and his younger brother Cortez Bey, also an outstanding amateur, turned pro as a tandem on a card in their hometown of Cleveland on April 29, 2005. The de facto promoter was their sponsor, Roy Jones Jr.

Bey was five years into his pro career and undefeated at 16-0 when he signed with Top Rank. His first fight under the Top Rank banner was a 6-rounder at the MGM Grand against Eric Cruz underneath a world featherweight title scrap between Juan Manuel Lopez and Rafael Marquez. Mickey won a unanimous decision but broke his hand in the process.

This was Bey’s first fight in Las Vegas, but he was no stranger to the city, having befriended the Mayweathers. Jeff Mayweather and Floyd Sr. trained him for his early fights in Las Vegas and he would later be persuaded to bolt Top Rank and join Floyd Mayweather Jr’s “Money Team” stable.

In hindsight, Bey wishes that he had stayed with Bob Arum’s organization. “I never had a bad experience with Arum. Bob was always a man of his word. I know that I would have gotten a title fight sooner if I had stayed there. Being a promoter would eventually become basically just a hobby for Floyd. That was becoming obvious even before he let Tank get away,” says Bey, referencing Gervonta “Tank” Davis who has a big fight on Saturday in Washington, DC, against Hector Luis Garcia.

Bey’s first title fight came against Mexico’s Miguel Vazquez who was making his seventh title defense. The match, co-promoted by Floyd Mayweather Jr and Oscar De La Hoya, was the chief supporting bout to Floyd’s rematch with Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand.

Bey won a split decision but his elation at winning the title was tempered by the fact that he knew it wasn’t a fan-friendly fight. It wasn’t simply a matter of mis-matched styles. Bey had hurt his hand again in training, but this was an opportunity too good to pass up.

Flash forward to Dec. 14, 2019 at Madison Square Garden. Bey is matched against George Kambosos Jr, an undefeated (17-0) Australian but a fighter without a signature win and best known as Manny Pacquiao’s longtime sparring partner.

For Bey, this is his first fight in 15 months and only his second fight in three-and-a-half years, but he acquits himself well while losing a split decision. And you know the rest of the story. Kambosos goes on to upset Teofimo Lopez, begetting a monster payday in his first of two fights with Devin Haney.

Bey concedes that he had no burning desire to fight again after fighting Kambosos, but that he reconsidered after the Australian became an overnight sensation. But getting his career back on track has proved to be daunting.

Bey and Tevin Farmer were first scheduled to fight on May 21 in Accra, Ghana. The fight was then shifted to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, but could not go on as scheduled when UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan passed away on May 13 as custom dictated a period of mourning that sacked all local sporting events.

Farmer vs. Bey was rescheduled for Aug. 12 in Prescott, Arizona, but evaporated when promoter EJ Matthews, who operated under the name Bigger Than Life Entertainment, failed to meet his obligations. To say that the fight fell out at the eleventh hour doesn’t capture the gist of it. Four undercard bouts in what was to be a six-bout card were completed when the lights were turned off. Bey vs. Farmer “just vanished like lost luggage,” wrote Arizona’s ace boxing scribe Norm Frauenheim.

BLK Prime, which rescued the orphaned fight, raised eyebrows when it jumped into the fight game with fistfuls of money, seemingly overpaying — and grossly overpaying – to acquire the services of Terence “Bud” Crawford, a brilliant fisticuffer whose ring artistry hadn’t translated into strong pay-per-view buys, and the under-achieving problem child Adrien Broner.

Mickey Bey was ringside for BLK Prime’s maiden venture, Crawford’s successful title defense against David Avanesyan last month in Omaha, Bud Crawford’s hometown. While the ppv numbers are proprietary – a company spokesman said they exceeded expectations, whatever that means – the event at Creighton University’s basketball arena was a smash hit at the gate with 14,360 tickets sold. It was Bey’s first trip to Omaha and he came away very impressed. His qualms that BLK’s Atlanta promotion could turn into another boondoggle were assuaged.

“The atmosphere was one of the best of any fight that I have been to,” says Bey. “Everything the promoter did was first-class, very professional.”

Although Bey wasn’t included on Team Devin Haney’s two excursions to Melbourne, he has been deeply involved in the career of the undisputed lightweight champion. “Of all the young fighters out there, he has the best chance of surpassing Floyd’s 50-0,” he says.

“In some regards, Devin reminds me of my old amateur teammate Andre Ward. I knew Andre had the best chance of winning a gold medal in Athens. It was his determination and his discipline. He probably could have made our Olympic team as a long-distance runner if he had been so inclined.”

Bey’s trainer Kevin Henry has also been heavily involved in the career of Haney, having first worked with the precocious boxer when Haney was nine years old and sticking around for all but his last three fights. “Kevin Henry and Floyd [Mayweather] Sr. were most responsible for crafting Devin into the fighter that he has become,” notes Bey.

Ring rust could be an issue when Mickey Bey and Tevin Farmer step into the ring on Feb. 25. Both will have been out of action for 25 months. However, Bey doesn’t consider this a problem. “Had the fight come off when it was originally scheduled,” he says, “I would have had a much shorter camp and I wouldn’t be in the shape that I am now.”

Bey studies the odds on fights and is respected among his peers for his sharp opinion. When he says, “I will defeat Farmer, of that I have no doubt,” one is tempted to saunter over to the sportsbook without waiting for the inevitable rebuttal from his opponent.

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Arne K. Lang’s latest book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” rolled off the press in September. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher (https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/clash-of-the-little-giants) or via Amazon.

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Arne K. Lang

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For Whom the Bell Tolled: 2022 Boxing Obituaries PART TWO (July-Dec.)

A Paean to the Great Sportswriter Jimmy Cannon Who Passed Away 50 Years Ago This Week

Published

2 days ago

December 4, 2023

Arne K. Lang

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“Of all his assignments,” said the renowned sportswriter Dave Anderson, “[Jimmy] Cannon appeared to enjoy boxing the most.”

Cannon would have sheepishly concurred. He dated his infatuation with boxing to 1919 when he stood outside a saloon listening to a man with a megaphone relay bulletins from the Dempsey-Willard fight in faraway Toledo. His father followed boxing as did all the Irishmen in his neighborhood. For him, an interest in the sport of boxing, he once wrote, was like a family heirloom. But it became a love-hate relationship. It was Jimmy Cannon, after all, who coined the phrase “boxing is the red light district of sports.”

This week marks the 50^th anniversary of Jimmy Cannon’s death. He passed away at age 63 on Dec. 5, 1973, in his room at the residential hotel in mid-Manhattan where he made his home. In the realm of American sportswriters, there has never been a voice quite like him. He was “the hardest-boiled of the hard-drinking, hard-boiled school of sports writing,” wrote Darrell Simmons of the Atlanta Journal. One finds a glint of this in his summary of Sonny Liston’s first-round demolition of Albert Westphal in 1961: “Sonny Liston hit Albert Westphal like he was a cop.”

In his best columns, Jimmy Cannon was less a sportswriter than an urban poet. Here’s what he wrote about Archie Moore in 1955 after Moore trounced Bobo Olson to set up a match with Rocky Marciano: “Someone should write a song about Archie Moore who in the Polo Grounds knocked out Bobo Olson in three rounds…It should be a song that comes out of the backrooms of sloughed saloons on night-drowned streets in morning-worried parts of bad towns. The guy who writes this one must be a piano player who can be dignified when he picks a quarter out of the marsh of a sawdust floor.”

Prior to fighting in Madison Square Garden the previous year – his first appearance in that iconic boxing arena – Moore had roamed the globe in search of fights in a career that began in the Great Depression. Cannon was partial to boxers like Archie Moore, great ring artisans who toiled in obscurity, fighting for small purses –“moving-around money” in Cannon’s words — until the establishment could no longer ignore them.

Jimmy Cannon was born in Lower Manhattan. He left high school after one year to become a copy boy for the New York Daily News. In 1936, at age 26, the News sent him to cover the biggest news story of the day, the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping trial. While there he met Damon Runyon who would become a lifelong friend. At Runyon’s suggestion, he applied for a job as a sportswriter at the New York American, a Hearst paper, and was hired.

During World War II, he was a war correspondent in Europe embedded in Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army. When he returned from the war, he joined the New York Post and then, in 1959, the Journal-American which made him America’s highest-paid sportswriter at a purported salary of $1000 a week. His articles were syndicated and appeared in dozens of papers.

Cannon was very close to Joe Louis. He was the only reporter that Louis allowed in his hotel room on the morning of the Brown Bomber’s rematch with Max Schmeling. Louis, he wrote, “was a credit to his race, the human race.” It was his most-frequently-quoted line.

In an early story, Cannon named Sam Langford the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time. Later he joined with his colleagues on Press Row in naming Sugar Ray Robinson the greatest of the greats. As for the fellow who anointed himself “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali, Cannon profoundly disliked him. He persisted in calling him Cassius Clay long after Ali had adopted his Muslim name.

It troubled Cannon that Ali was afforded an opportunity to fight for the title after only 19 pro fights. Ali’s poetry, he thought, was infantile. He abhorred Ali’s political views. And, truth be told, he didn’t like Ali because certain segments of society adored him. Cannon didn’t like non-conformists – hippies and anti-war protesters and such. When queried about his boyhood in Greenwich Village, he was quick to note that he lived there “when it was a decent neighborhood, before it became freaky.”

Cannon’s animus toward Ali spilled over into his opinion of Ali’s foil, the bombastic sportscaster Howard Cosell. “If Howard Cosell were a sport,” he wrote,” it would be roller derby.”

Cannon frequently filled his column with a series of one-liners published under the heading “Nobody Asked Me, But…” His wonderfully acerbic put-down of Cosell appeared in one of these columns. But one can’t read these columns today without cringing at some of his ruminations. He once wrote, “Any man is in trouble if he falls in love with a woman he can’t knock down with one punch.” If a newspaperman wrote those words today, he would be out of a job so fast it would make his head spin.

Similarly, his famous line about Joe Louis being a credit to the human race no longer resonates in the way that it once did. There is in its benevolence an air of racial prejudice.

Jimmy Cannon was a lifelong bachelor but in his younger days before he quit drinking cold turkey in 1948, he was quite the ladies man, often seen promenading showgirls around town. Like his pal Damon Runyon, he was a night owl. As the years passed, however, he became somewhat reclusive. The world passed him by when rock n’ roll came in, pushing aside the Tin Pan Alley crooners and torch singers that had kept him company at his favorite late-night haunts.

Cannon’s end days were tough. He suffered a stroke in 1971 as he was packing to go to the Kentucky Derby and spent most of his waking hours in his last two-plus years in a wheelchair. Fortunately, he could afford to hire a full-time attendant. In 2002, he was posthumously elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category.

Jimmy Cannon once said that he resented it when someone told him that his stuff was too good to be in a newspaper. It was demeaning to newspapers and he never wanted to be anything but a newspaperman. He didn’t always bring his “A” game and some of his stuff wouldn’t hold up well, but the man could write like blazes and the sportswriting profession lost a giant when he drew his last breath.

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—

Arne K. Lang is a recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling. His latest book, titled Clash of the Little Giants: George Dixon, Terry McGovern, and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910, was released by McFarland in September, 2022.

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Ryan “KingRy” Garcia Returns With a Bang; KOs Oscar Duarte

Published

3 days ago

December 2, 2023

David A. Avila

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It was a different Ryan “KingRy” Garcia the world saw in defeating Mexico’s rugged Oscar Duarte, but it was that same deadly left hook counter that got the job done by knockout on Saturday.

Only the quick survive.

Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) used a variety of stances before luring knockout artist Duarte (26-1-1, 21 KOs) into his favorite punch before a sold-out crowd at Toyota Arena in Houston, Texas. That punch should be patented in gold.

It was somewhat advertised as knockout artist versus matinee idol, but those who know the sport knew that Garcia was a real puncher. But could he rebound from his loss earlier this year?

The answer was yes.

Garcia used a variety of styles beginning with a jab at a prescribed distance via his new trainer Derrick James. It allowed both Garcia and Duarte to gain footing and knock the cobwebs out of their reflexes. Garcia’s jab scored most of the early points during the first three rounds. He also snapped off some left hooks and rights.

“He was a strong fighter, took a strong punch,” said Garcia. “I hit him with some hard punches and he kept coming.”

Duarte, an ultra-pale Mexican from Durango, was cautious, knowing full well how many Garcia foes had underestimated the power behind his blows.

Slowly the muscular Mexican fighter began closing in with body shots and soon both fighters were locked in an inside battle. Garcia used a tucked-in shoulder style while Duarte pounded the body, back of the head and in the back causing the referee to warn for the illegal punches twice.

Still, Duarte had finally managed to punch Garcia with multiple shots for several rounds.

Around the sixth round Garcia was advised by his new trainer to begin jabbing and moving. It forced Duarte out of his rhythm as he was unable to punch without planting his feet. Suddenly, the momentum had reversed again and Duarte looked less dangerous.

“I had to slow his momentum down. That softened him up,” said Garcia about using that change in style to change Duarte’s pressure attack. “Shout out to Derrick James.”

Boos began cascading from the crowd but Garcia was on a roll and had definitely regained the advantage. A quick five-punch combination rocked Duarte though not all landed. The danger made the Mexican pause.

In the eighth round Duarte knew he had to take back the momentum and charged even harder. In one lickety-split second a near invisible counter left hook connected on Duarte’s temple and he stumbled like a drunken soldier on liberty in Honolulu. Garcia quickly followed up with rights and uppercuts as Duarte had a look of terror as his legs failed to maintain stability. Down he went for the count.

Duarte was counted out by referee James Green at 2:51 of the eighth round as Garcia watched from the other side of the ring.

“I started opening up my legs a little bit to open up the shot,” explained Garcia. “When I hurt somebody that hard, I just keep cracking them. I hurt him with a counter left hook.”

The weapon of champions.

Garcia’s victory returns him back to the forefront as one of boxing’s biggest gate attractions. A list of potential foes is his to dissect and choose.

“I’m just ready to continue to my ascent to be a champion at 140,” Garcia said.

It was a tranquil end after such a tumultuous last three days.

Other Bouts

Floyd Schofield (16-0, 12 KOs) blitzed Mexico’s Ricardo “Not Finito” Lopez (17-8-3) with a four knockdown blowout that left fans mesmerized and pleased with the fighter from Austin, Texas.

Schofield immediately shot out quick jabs and then a lightning four-punch combination that delivered Lopez to the canvas wondering what had happened. He got up. Then Scholfield moved in with a jab and crisp left hook and down went Lopez like a dunked basketball bouncing.

At this point it seemed the fight might stop. But it proceeded and Schofield unleashed another quick combo that sent Lopez down though he did try to punch back. It was getting monotonous. Lopez got up and then was met with another rapid fire five- or six-punch combination. Lopez was down for the fourth time and the referee stopped the devastation.

“I appreciate him risking his life,” said Schofield of his victim.

In a middleweight clash Shane Mosley Jr. (21-4, 12 KOs) out-worked Joshua Conley (17-6-1, 11 KOs) for five rounds before stopping the San Bernardino fighter at 1:51 of the sixth round. It was Mosley’s second consecutive knockout and fourth straight win.

Mosley continues to improve in every fight and again moves up the middleweight rankings.

Super middleweight prospect Darius Fulghum (9-0, 9 KOs) of Houston remained undefeated and kept his knockout string intact with a second round pounding and stoppage over Pachino Hill (8-5-1) in 56 seconds of that round.

Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions

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Jordan Gill TKOs Michael Conlan Who May Have Reached the End of the Road

Published

4 days ago

December 2, 2023

Arne K. Lang

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Fighting on his home turf, two-time Olympian Michael Conlan was an 8/1 favorite over Jordan Gill tonight in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Had he won, Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn was eyeing a rematch for Conlan with Leigh Wood. Their March 2022 rumble in Nottingham was a popular pick for the Fight of the Year. But the 29-year-old Gill, a Cambridgeshire man, rendered that discussion moot with a seventh-round stoppage. It was Conlan’s third loss inside the distance in the last 18 months and he would be wise to call it a day. His punch resistance is plainly not what it once was.

It was with considerable fanfare that Conlan cast his lot with Top Rank coming out of the amateur ranks. Tonight was his first assignment for Matchroom and his first fight at 130 pounds after coming up short in two world featherweight title fights. And he almost didn’t make it past the second round. Gill had him on the canvas in the opening minute of round two compliments of a left hook and stunned him late in the round with a right hand that left him on unsteady legs.

He survived the round and for a fleeting moment in the sixth frame it appeared that he had reversed Gill’s momentum. But Gill took charge again in the next stanza, trapping Conlan in the corner and unloading a fusillade of punches that forced referee Howard Foster to waive it off, much to the great dismay of the crowd. The official time was 1:09 of round seven.

Released by Top Rank, Conlan trained for this fight in Miami, Florida, under Pedro Diaz, best known for rejuvenating the career of Miguel Cotto. But the switch in trainer and in promoter made no difference as Conlan, who won his first amateur title at age 11, was damaged goods before he entered the ring. It was a career-defining victory for Jordan Gill (28-2-1, 9 KOs) who was not known as a big puncher and was returning to the ring after being stopped by Kiko Martinez 13 months ago in his previous start.

Semi-wind-up

In the “Battle of Belfast,” undefeated welterweight Lewis Crocker seized control in the opening round and went on to win a lopsided decision over intra-city rival Tyrone McKenna (23-4-1). Two of the judges gave Crocker every round and the other had it 98-92, but yet this was entertaining fight in spurts. McKenna had more fans in the building, but Crocker, seven years younger at age 26, went to post a 7/2 favorite and youth was served.

Other Bouts of Note

Belfast super welterweight Caoimhin Agyarko, who overcame a near-fatal mugging at age 20, advanced to 14-0 (7) with a 10-round split decision over Troy Williamson (20-2-1). The judges had it 98-92 and 97-93 for Agyarko with a dissenter submitting a curious 96-94 score for the 31-year-old Williamson who wasn’t able to exploit his advantages in height and reach.

Sean McComb, a 31-year-old Belfast southpaw, scored what was arguably the best win of his career with a 10-round beat-down of longtime sparring partner Sam Maxwell. Two of the judges gave McComb every round and the other had it 99-88. McComb, who has an interesting nickname, “The Public Nuisance, successfully defended his WBO European super welterweight strap while elevating his record to 18-1 (6). The fading, 35-year-old Maxwell, a former BBBofC British title-holder, lost for third time in his last four starts after winning his first 16 pro fights.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom

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