Mickey Bey, Tevin Farmer travel far, wind up nowhere

By Norm Frauenheim –

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Ariz. – It was a fight that traveled, first from Ghana to Dubai and then to this town in central Arizona. It crossed a lot of time zones. Accumulated lots of miles. But it went nowhere.

In the end, there was no Mickey Bey-versus-Tevin Farmer in a ring, or on pay-per-view.

It just vanished Friday night like lost luggage. The way it disappeared probably got more attention than the advertised bout ever would have. It looked as if there just wasn’t interest in a lightweight fight between a couple of forgotten ex-champions

Farmer, who won junior-lightweight belt in 2018, is 32. Bey, who won a lightweight belt in 2014, is 39. Neither have fought in a couple of years.

That’s a tough sell on any map. Turns out, it was impossible in a growing community near Prescott, an old Western town known for Whiskey Row and its colorful history as Arizona’s territorial capitol. There are conflicting allegations about who’s to blame. What to blame.

For now, that leaves only one reliable guide. Follow the money. There wasn’t enough of it, at least not for Bey and Farmer. In an Instagram post midway through the undercard, they suddenly announced the fight was off, saying that the promoter failed to fulfill promises.

“The promoters, you know, pulled a little slick on us,’’ Bey said.

Bey and Framer weren’t even in Prescott Valley when they posted the news.  They were in Phoenix, about 91 miles down the road. It appeared they posted the message while aboard a flight.

It was clear early Friday that they had decided they wouldn’t fight. According to several people who were at the formal weigh-in Thursday, there were signs that Bey and Farmer were unhappy.

However, their promoter, EJ Matthews of Bigger Than Life Entertainment said they share some of the blame. Both fighters were part of the promotion, Matthews said. Both Farmer and Bey have their own promotional entities. Their logos were on display on the ring ropes and throughout the arena, Findlay Toyota Center.

“They co-promoted, they’re partners,’’ Matthews said in the aftermath late Friday. “They couldn’t make their own deal.’’

However, Bey and Framer said they worked to save the fight.

“We did our due diligence,’’ Framer said.

Bey said: “We tried to bargain with them.’’

However, it’s not clear whether there was enough there. There’s no deal to make if there’s nothing in the pot. The fight was offered on RedemptionTV for $29.99. Bey and Farmer said on their post that PPV buyers should try to get their money back. But were there any buyers?

If a mostly empty Toyota Center was an indication, there weren’t many. The arena has 5,100 seats. Early in the card, there were maybe a 1,000 in the audience. Even that diminished, however, after Prescott junior-middleweight Danny Hilton (2-0, 2 KOs), promoted by Sweet Science Boxing of Phoenix, scored an early stoppage of overmatched Isaac Sifuentez (0-6) of Texas.

Hilton’s fans left the building and headed out to party after their hometown favorite won. They were never there for Bey-Farmer in the first place. Even if they had been, however, they would not have known that the main event was off.

The Bey-Farmer cancellation was never announced before or during the lengthy card. It only became known, word-of-mouth, when the fighters posted the news on Instagram.

There was no comment from the Arizona State Boxing & MMA Commission about the cancellation and how it was handled. Executive director Danny Vella said commission directives prohibit him from commenting

Vella told 15 Rounds that any comment would have to come through a public information officer assigned to the regulatory agency by the Arizona Department of Gaming, which runs the commission. There was no public information officer at ringside Friday. Purses, recorded by the Commission for tax purposes, were also not disclosed. They haven’t been for about a year.

15 Rounds asked a public information officer repeatedly for the purse amount earned by super-middleweight David Benavidez last November for a stoppage of Kyrone Davis at Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.

15 Rounds is still waiting for an answer to that question. And, now, another one.

Friday night’s craziness overwhelmed whatever attention there was on the undercard. A couple of noteworthy bouts:

Junior-featherweight Tramaine Williams (20-1, 6 KOs) of New Haven, Conn., displayed patience and poise in a unanimous decision over Filipino Jetro Pabustan (31-9-6, 9 KOs).

Phoenix featherweight Keenan Carbajal (24-3-1, 16 KOs) threw a huge right-handed uppercut for a third-round knockout of Brazilian Aelio Mesquita (21-8-1, 19 KOs).