Mickey Bey Jr: I definitely plan to be one of the next great PPV fighters!

Boxingchronicles.com is extremely proud to bring you the first ever one-on-one interview with a professional fighter.  The following is the interview I did yesterday with junior lightweight contender Mickey Bey, Jr, who is 15-0 with 8 knockouts.  Definitely not lacking for confidence, Mickey looks forward to anybody and everybody who stands in his way of becoming a lights-out, multi-division champion and PPV superstar. 

Bryan Bradley: Mickey Bey Jr, I understand you compete in the lightweight division, currently boasting a professional record of 15-0 with 8 knockouts. Can tell me a little bit about yourself – how you got into boxing and the drive behind your ascension into the professional ranks?

Mickey Bey: I got into boxing. I tried a lot of sports when I was young.  I played football, tennis, baseball, ran track.  Really, I did it all, but boxing was kind of in my blood. My grandfather used to fight.  He never turned pro, but he used to fight.  My dad was the huge boxing fan.  He had all the tapes in the house. So when I found the gym, locally, I started boxing, and since day one, you know I've been a boxer ever since and that was when I was 12 years old back in 1996.

BB: I understand you were a Golden Gloves champ as well?  You fought in the Golden Gloves?
MB: Yes, yes, I won the Golden Gloves. Nationals.  Actually, I was on the 2004 Olympic team.  I caught pneumenia in training camp, and I wasn't able to compete in Greece, but I won the Olympic Trials and everything.

BB: You won the Olympic Trials.  I think Showtime at one point said you had about 200...maybe a little over 250 bouts.

MB: Yea, well close to 200 amateur bouts.

Tell me what it was like to even compete in the trials and what it meant to you as an athlete in the United States.

MB: Oh it means everything, especially to me, the big thing is that the olympic trials were in my hometown of Cleveland, OH.  So that made it even bigger than family and friends got to see me fight.  Winning it from there made it even bigger, but, that's the biggest thing that you can do actually as an athlete.  That's just as big, or even bigger, than winning the world championship - making the olympic team, you know, that's every athlete's dream. A dream come true.

BB: Alot of the boxers I hear from say, what's bigger?  Winning a world title, a world championship or fighting in the olympics, or even fighting in the olympic trials?  The olympic trials, a lot of them say, is so much bigger of a buzz.

MB:  Right, because you got more than one chance to win a world title, you know, you got so many hundreds of thousands of people that's competing to make the Olympics, you know, when you make that, it's a big thing.

BB: For the readers who are learning about Mickey Bey Jr and looking out for him as he moves up in professional rankings, can you tell me what you feel your greatest strengths are as a boxer?

MB: Really, my greatest strengths are I can do everything in the ring.  I can mix it up. I got all the tools and I know how to use them and when to use them.  I'm a smart fighter.  I fight different every fight, according to the opponent that I am fighting. And my determination and discipline outside of the ring.

BB: So you mix it up a little bit.  What you're saying is, you're unpredictable to the opponent.

MB: Right, I'm unpredictable.  It would be hard for anybody to study me throughout my whole career because you might see one fight, I might do one thing, but the next fight I'll do the complete opposite.  I could just get in the ring and adapt and know what to do when I'm in there, so I never go into the fight with the same game plan.  I go in the ring and can carry out a game plan when I'm fighting.

BB: You know, the Mayweathers are a pretty deep pack in the sport of boxing.  They're a long time family of fighters.  You have Roger, who won the world championship.  You have Floyd Mayweather Sr, and then you have Jeff Mayweather.  How is the experience of working with Floyd (Jr's) uncle Jeff Mayweather?

MB:  Oh it's great.  Jeff was a really good fighter himself.  He just decided to go to college and manage his nephew and help him with his career.  But, it's great because he did it on a high level.  His brothers are great fighters and trainers and he knows the game. He knows everything that's needed to know, and by me being able to pick up on it and actually perform and all, I think we're definitely going to be big duo in boxing for some time to come.

BB: Has he ever brought Floyd in to work with you?

MB: Yea actually, Floyd Sr, he trained me first when I first turned pro.  That was my first trainer.  He was great too. After training with those guys, I can't see myself training with anybody else for the rest of my career.

BB: Good boxing family.  No doubt; very knowledgable people.

MB: Yeah they are.  They're very knowledgable.  They know it all.  When it comes to boxing, that's their God given talent is to be great trainers, you know, for all of them to be able to train at that level that they train on.  That's their calling definitely.

BB: You know, you're in the lightweight division.  Just a year ago, the lightweight division had some stars.  It had some guys like Juan Manuel Marquez, Juan Diaz, Marquez and Diaz had a fight that was a candidate for Fight of the Year last year...

MB: ....Actually, I'm competing at junior lightweight. I usually fight a lot of fights at lightweight because it's hard to get fights, but I eventually will be moving up, probably a few weight classes, but I'm going to compete for my first world title at junior lightweight sometime this year.  Hopefully the first half of the year. I'm looking to fight any titleholder.  Me and Jeff both know that we can come out victorious against any of them.  We're looking at Robert Guerrero, Roman Martinez, and the WBC champ, and whoever. Whichever one of these guys that I get to first, I'll definitely fight them.

BB. Maybe Humberto Soto?  Humberto Soto is the guy who's got the WBC.

MB: Oh yea, me and Soto, we can definitely do it.  I'll fight Soto tomorrow.  I'd love to fight Soto.

BB: In your view, who is the best pound for pound fighter in the world today?

MB: Well I think Floyd Mayweather is, because he's been on top for the longest. and the way he handled Juan Manuel Marquez was great.

BB: That was definitely the Comeback of the Year.

MB: Yeah, that was big for him to beat him the way he did.  When you look at Manny's fights, he had a draw and a split decision.  Even though styles make fights.  I definitely think with Manny it's arguable, but I will say Floyd just because he still hasn't lost and he beat everybody he fought hands down, and especially if he fights Shane and beats him, I think you really can't even make an argument then.

BB: Well that's true.  Floyd fighting Shane vs. Pacquiao fighting Clottey.  It would definitely be bigger.

MB: Yeah that's a lot bigger and that's almost closed for May 1, so hopefully both of them win and they still get to fight sometime this year.

BB:  Getting back to your training regimen, would you say you're one of those types of fighters who reviews video tape or video coverage of your opponents or are you the type of person that just likes to learn what your opponent is giving you hands on when you get into the ring with him that night because what he does in the ring with you may not be the same as what he's done in the past?  Like you said, you're unpredictable.

MB:  Yeah exactly, that was a  good way you put it.  Mainly I would let Jeff look at it because Jeff can pretty much adapt and break down the game plan, and I'll do just like you said, just get in the ring.  You know, it's just like me, I fight different every fight so, you don't want to look at a fighter for what he did in the past, but I look at the basic things that I think they can't change that they've been doing and look at some bad habits, but other than that I just get into the ring and just let it flow.

BB: Coming up in April, as you know, Bernard Hopkins is going to be fighting Roy Jones, Jr. on April 3rd.  This is after Jones got knocked out by Danny Green in one round in Australia which was kind of embarrassing.  The fact that it's a PPV headliner, what do you think of that?  Do you think this fight should even be happening still, or...

MB: I don't even think they should fight.  I don't even think Roy should fight anymore. It's just damaging what he did in the past.  In his career Roy was one of the best fighters in the last 20 years, but if people look at the way you go out, I don't know what it's going to take for him to stay out.  He keeps getting brutally knocked out, and he's 41 years old, I don't understand.  It's not like he can get better at this point than he was before.  I don't understand why he's fighting, and Bernard Hopkins, I don't know why he's even fighting Roy. I guess he's looking at it as an easy pay day, but he already made a ton of money, so if I was Bernard, there's a lot of other fighters out there that he can fight like Chad Dawson and guys like that, but I guess he doesn't want to fight those kinds of guys.

BB: Or maybe even move up to heavyweight and fight David Haye.

MB: Right.  Yeah. David Haye, yup.  But obviously he just wants the easiest pay day out there.

BB: You're at 130lbs right now.  You'd like to fight Guerrero. Humberto Soto.  When you move up lightweight, like I was saying, last year you guys like Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz and Juan Manuel Marquez holding down the lightweight division. Now they've kind of gone North. Right now you got guys like Undefeated Edwin Valero, whose opponents can't seem to get out of the first round with him.  You got guys like Joan Guzman and Ali Funeka, who fought to a bizzare draw last November.  Personally I feel Funeka won 10 of the 12 rounds in that fight.  When you move up to lightweight, would you consider any of those guys potentially?

MB: Oh yea, definitely.  When I move to a weight class, I want to fight the best that's there. So whoever's the best, whether it's any of those guys, that's the one I'm definitely going for.  I'm going straight for the titles and straight for the biggest fights out there.  I definitely plan to be one of the next great PPV fighters, so I'll fight guys like that in order to get to that status.

BB: This question is the perfect segway to PPV, you brought up PPV and that you want to become a PPV star.  If you could take one fight.... You go to bed every night thinking to yourself if I could fight that one guy, if I could have this one fight which would propel me to the level of being a PPV superstar, fighting for a world title, all the marbles are on the line for this fight, and it's going to make a superstar if I beat this guy and beat him in spectacular fashion, what fighter could you dream being in the ring with?

MB: I'm going to be totally honest, and it might sound crazy, but Manny Pacquiao. *laughing*

BB: *laughing* That doesn't sound crazy.  That doesn't sound crazy.  I mean he's gone up from 106lbs and now he's 147lbs.  You're a young man, you're still at 130lbs, so you could very well move up to that weight and fight him some day perhaps.

MB:  Right. Definitely.  I wouldn't say Floyd, because we're really close and great friends, so I would kind of exclude him, so I would say Manny Pacquiao. I would love that one. And I wouldn't be suprised in the next few years if that might be one of the matchups that the world wants to see hopefully.

BB: How do you think a fight between you and Pacquiao plays out?

MB: Oh I'll definitely win.  I wouldn't guarentee a knockout or anything because Manny is just relentless himself, but I think I at least beat him by unanimous decision.  I think I'll outsmart Manny because I feel like, especially,  in two or three years I think I'm going to be unstoppable once I get that world championship experience. It'll be hard for anybody to beat me at that point but I think I'll outsmart Manny because I think I'll be able to match anything he can do, and he'll even do a lot more at that point in two years or so.

BB: The first Erik Morales fight from 2005 is a blueprint.

MB: Oh exactly right.  Right.  That was the one that really showed the way to beat Manny.  And Floyd, I think he'll be the next one to beat Manny, but you know, Manny definitely is at the top of his game right now, so you know, he's dangerous for anybody.

BB: Any closing thoughts for the fans?  Any words you'd like to give to the fans or the people around the world?

MB:  Oh yeah, I definitely just want to let everybody know to be on the look out for Mickey Bey.  Anybody from boxing fans, hardcore fans, and just the casual fans, you know I'm getting ready to bring a lot of excitement and do my part in the ring to bring a lot of excitement and a lot of flair, just like the fighters in the 70s and 80s, and bring a nice decade of world championship, world class performances.

[Editors note: When talking about the junior lightweight champions, I mentioned Juan Carlos Salgado's 1st round upset KO of Jorge Linares for the WBA title last year, but I had a mind block when trying to think of the name!  Off the record, Mickey correctly informed me that Salgado, himself, had just been stopped and detroned of his title.  On January 11, undefeated Takashi Uchiyama stopped Salgado in the 12th and final round to win the title.]

Boxingchronicles.com sincerely thanks Mickey Bey, Jeff Mayweather, and Jeanette K of Boxingladiators.com for this golden opportunity.  Thank you very much! 

Boxingchronicles.com looks forward to seeing Mickey Bey quite frequently in the future as his young and promising career blossoms.