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Retired man Mike Tyson wants to fight again
Mike Tyson sat slumped, the desire and resistance finally wearing off. After all, it was finally over.
Tyson’s last fight is one of boxing’s most heinous moments: For so many years, the once great heavyweight walked the tightrope of disaster and decline until his 58th time in the ring ended in a shocking admission that he already He wasn’t the ‘Iron Mike’ of old.
“It was sad,” sighs the man who retired Tyson in 2005 after inflicting his sixth loss, Kevin McBride.
The run of a sunken Tyson was about to end
McBride admits Tyson still retained his power
But 15 years later, Tyson is back. Kind of. At 54 years old, he will face his legendary partner Roy Jones Jr, 51, on Saturday night in an exhibition match where knockouts are not allowed and no winner will be announced.
“Imagine that?”
McBride, now 47, said Sky sports: “I’d like to see him knock out Jones and then say, ‘I want to fight the last man to beat me!’
“Of course I would love to mix with Tyson again.
“I would definitely give him a rematch and fight him again.
“I would like the opportunity to finish the job.”
McBride thought he had ended the Tyson mania once and for all in 2005. Both men have battled their separate demons ever since and, perhaps as soul mates, McBride feels part of Tyson’s history.
“It’s very strange, but Tyson is a megastar, everyone is interested,” McBride said. Sky sports. “It’s still dangerous.
“Everyone wants to know what kind of fighter he will be.
“He tried to bite my nipple, so maybe he’ll try to rip Jones Jr’s nose off!
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, no. But what about us fighters? We want to fight.”
Tyson had lost his bullying factor, says McBride
McBride was hypnotized before fighting Tyson
The Tyson who lost his final fight so grimly was a shell of ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’, as they had once known him.
“Let’s be honest: Tyson was not the same as he was 15 or 20 years earlier,” admits McBride.
The youngest world heavyweight champion in history had been in and out of prison, declared bankruptcy, wreaked havoc before fights in Glasgow and Manchester, and lost five times: He bit Evander Holyfield’s ear, Lennox Lewis lo dismantled and appeared to be on an irreparable downward curve against Danny Williams.
Now 38 and having lost two of his last three, Tyson was paired up against McBride, an Irishman with a humble record and no experience at the elite level.
“It was a dream for me to fight Tyson,” McBride said. “But to beat him?
“He had power and he was tough. George Foreman knocked out Michael Moore at age 44 – the last thing he leaves you with is power.
“Tyson is always dangerous, no matter his age. He can always knock you out.
“It hit so hard I can still feel the hit today!
“It hit me in the body and I felt something move on the other side.
“Then he hit me with a good right hand on the top of the head and I was watching goblins for a while!
“He tried to break my arm. He tried to bite me.
“But I leaned on him, I pushed him, I used my weight. I always think that a big strong man beats a small strong man.
“He hit me with good uppercuts, but I felt the energy drain, I felt his will leave him.
“In the sixth round he hit me with a good shot but I said: ‘Is that all you have? You’re in trouble …’
“In the back of my mind I hoped that was all I had!”
McBride says Tyson’s willpower slowly left him
McBride claims Tyson tried to hurt him illegally
During a chaotic sixth round, Tyson was warned by referee Joe Cortez for violently twisting McBride’s arm, then scored two points for an intentional header.
What followed before the seventh round was the moment when Tyson’s fierce aura was finally replaced by the vulnerable soul that he had become.
It was such a heartbreaking moment for anyone who idolized Tyson’s accomplishments in the ring, including the man who inflicted it.
“He just quit,” McBride sighs.
“He gave up on his bench. He had a chance to come out in the middle of the round, but he didn’t.
“He’ll live that for the rest of his life, as far as boxing is concerned, because he quit on his stool.
“He was a little disappointed. He was a little sad. He is a legend.
“A man of your pedigree just resigned.”
Tyson reportedly pocketed $ 5 million for his final fight and McBride insists he made just $ 150,000 by comparison.
Tyson has claimed that the paycheck is the only reason he entered the ring.
But for McBride? The Irishman who finally ended his career with 35 wins, 10 losses and a draw enjoyed his most glorious moment at the end of Tyson’s fall.
He would never challenge for a world title, but he will never be allowed to forget tonight in Washington DC.
“The best part was not beating Tyson, it was meeting Muhammad Ali in the ring,” he recalls. “His daughter was fighting on the card.
“I gave Ali a big hug and said, ‘This is the greatest night of my life.’
“He said, ‘I’m the best, you’re the last!’
“People said there was no way he could beat Tyson, but he had other plans, you know?
“It’s an Irish Cinderella story.”
Ali congratulated McBride at ringside
Kevin McBride celebrates his big night
The bullying factor that remains synonymous with Tyson (and has made a comeback via social media before his display against Jones Jr on Saturday night) was absent when he fought McBride.
“I had a hypnotist,” McBride laughs now.
“I left no stone unturned.
“My coach’s brother, Packie Collins, Steve had a hypnotist before he beat Chris Eubank.
“It gave me confidence.
“The hypnotist told me, ‘No matter how hard I hit, you will smile.’
“Look at the fight – he was smiling.
“Everything the hypnotist said came true in the fight.”
It gave McBride the inner strength not to fall apart before the opening bell, as many of Tyson’s opponents supposedly did when he looked at them in such anguish.
“I didn’t let him intimidate me. I said, ‘When I hit you, you’ll feel all of Ireland.’
“Tyson said, ‘You’ll break your hand.’
“I said, ‘As long as I break it over your head!'”
0:46 Roy Jones Jr: Mike Tyson still has power
2:53 Looking back at the Mike Tyson fight in Manchester in 2000, and the chaos that came with it …
Tyson and McBride are forever linked.
“The last time I saw him was at a Hall of Fame induction show,” McBride said. “I went up to him and said, ‘Do you remember me?’
“Tyson said, ‘Yeah, Kevin, I remember you.’
The man who retired Tyson in 2005 will see his former rival return to the ring and hopes they can meet once again.
“Tyson is in phenomenal shape. He seems like a game hungry man,” McBride said.
“It is giving me motivation.
“Tyson will want to get Jones Jr. out early. That’s what he likes to do.
“It’s amazing, out of nowhere, that after 15 years I come back. But I hope no one gets hurt.
“I’m a tree surgeon now, I’m strong at lifting logs. If the fight with Tyson ever came back, it would take only a few weeks to be ready.
“It never ends until it ends.”
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