DEARBORN — The second major boxing event to take place in Dearborn in recent months is set for Friday, February 22 at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, but the city’s two local undefeated Arab American professional fighters are not on the card.

Promoter Wessam Jawad said the event will be broadcast nationally on the Fox Sports network.

Jawad said he wants his company Heavy Hitter Promotions to help revitalize the local boxing scene by bringing grand shows to Dearborn.

He said the city should be a regional boxing Mecca, as the new home of the famed Kronk Gym, which moved to Dearborn from its original Detroit location in 2006.

Jawad said he wants Heavy Hitter events to attract upscale audiences with flashy shows.

“It’s more of a spectacle, than just a boxing match,” Jawad said.

He even envisions circus acrobats swinging through the rafters at future events.

“We’re trying to make it more of a Vegas-style show,” said another of several co-promoters of Friday’s event, Gino Cicarella.

But the show will go on Friday without 9-0 middleweight Brian “The Lion” Mihtar and 5-0-1 cruiserweight Fadi Faraj, both from Dearborn.

Faraj withdrew from the card because of a hand injury and knockout-artist Mihtar was never scheduled because of bitter disagreements with promoters.

Cicarella said that Mihtar’s trainer Charlie Peters contacted him only a week before the fight, too late for a fight to be arranged, and that no offer was ever made.

Peters said he made multiple calls to Cicarella and that an “extremely unreasonable offer” was made, in which Mihtar would have to work to sell tickets for the show.

“I believe that it was a very bad business decision that they made,” said Ray Mihtar, Brian’s brother and advisor.

Frustrated over the missed opportunity for his brother to fight in his hometown, Ray Mihtar said that both sides would have benefitted had an agreement been made.

“They want to be big time promoters, but they don’t want to reach into their pockets for a big time show… They want to have an upscale-style show, what they need to do is write an upscale style check.”

Cicarella said the televised event gives fighters a rare opportunity at national exposure, and that boxers who did get on the card did not press the money issue.

“They lack vision,” he said, of the Mihtars.  “They’re going to shoot themselves in the foot if they keep trying to nickel and dime.”

Ray Mihtar said that his brother has “moved on to bigger and better things,” having reached an agreement on Monday to a long-time contract with Gary Shaw Promotions, a major New Jersey-based company that promotes high-profile championship events.

He said Brian Mihtar is set to fight in April on the undercard of a Florida event headlined by former light-heavyweight champion Antonio Tarver.

A call made to Gary Shaw’s cell phone in an attempt to confirm the signing was not answered, and the promoter’s voice mailbox was full.

Jawad said he hopes Heavy Hitter Promotions can work with local Arab American groups to arrange a boxing event as part of Dearborn’s annual Arab International Festival in the summer, ideally featuring Mihtar and Faraj.

“Imagine an entirely Arab card,” he said.

“I like Brian as a person and I hope to work with him in the future. And as Arab Americans, we have to help each other out.”

Friday night’s event at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center begins at 7 p.m.

Detroit welterweight Lanardo Tyner, 19-0, who was scheduled to headline the show, has also withdrawn because of disagreements with the promoters.

Vernon Paris, also undefeated at 17-0 and also from Detroit, has taken his place on the card to go up against Nasser Athumani, 20-5-1, of Kenya.

Tickets are available at www.neptix.com.