BOXING: Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has finally signed a contract to fight Ireland's Kevin McBride on June 11th. The fight will take place in Washington DC, with Muhammad Ali's daughter Laila featuring as the chief support.
All three boxers attended a press conference yesterday, which was called at short notice. Tyson had a number of issues to sort out before he put pen to paper, not least his boxing license, which had expired for the District of Columbia, but was renewed last week.
The card is being promoted by Raging Promotions and will be a pay-per-view event on the Showtime cable network in the US.
"It's a done deal," said a Raging Promotions executive yesterday after the press conference. "We've stuck in a big fight here. We're looking forward now to June 11th."
The 6ft 6in McBride has been training recently with American heavyweight Calvin Brock in the mountains in western Pennsylvania, while the 38-year-old Tyson has not fought since his humiliating loss in the fourth round to British heavyweight journeyman Danny Williams last July in Louisville.
It is reported the troubled fighter is more than $38 million in debt, despite amassing career earnings of €200 million.
Once unbeatable, Tyson first became the world champion in 1986 and has since recorded a 50-5 record with 44 knockouts. But his power and menace have been in decline in recent years.
The 31-year-old McBride, who began his boxing with the Smithboro Club in Clones and now boxes out of Brockton, Massachusetts, has won 32 of his 37 fights with 27 knockouts. He is on a seven-bout winning streak.
Known to have a knockout punch, McBride has faced top-level opposition before, but was stopped by both Axel Schultz and DaVarryl Williamson.
"Kevin entered a contract last Tuesday with Raging Promotions. We were waiting on a few loose ends to be tied up on Mike's side," said McBride's US lawyer, Mike Monaghan. The fight will take place in Washington's MCI Centre, which holds around 20,000 people.
"Everything went smoothly," said McBride yesterday. "I'm now looking forward to the fight. I'm going to shock the world on June 11th when I beat the former heavyweight champion of the world. He's nearly 39 and I'm 31.
"I think it's my time to make a name and I hope a lot of people come over from Ireland to support me. I know my family will come over and I'll get a lot of support from Boston where I am now based."
In his most recent outing last month, the Irishman stopped Kevin Montiy in five rounds. Known as the "Clones Colossus" McBride celebrated the St Patrick's Day weekend by scoring a fifth round TKO over his sluggish opponent.
Despite the win, McBride's display was enough to convince the Tyson camp that he could be considered a "safe" opponent for their fighter, whose career is in desperate need of revival.
Typically, there was a degree of chaos in the lead in to yesterday's announcement, as McBride made frantic efforts to get to the conference centre.
It is not the first time the two fighters have been lined up, but McBride lost out last year when Williams agreed to fight Tyson for less money.
"We were told we would get 48 hours notice before it was announced," said Monaghan yesterday. "But they called it quickly and we actually had trouble getting the word to Kevin, who was training in the mountains and could not be contacted. But, eventually, we got him and he was able to attend the press conference with Mike and Laila."
