Pound for Pound, It's a Really Big Fight
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Friday, June 10, 2005
Mike Tyson said he is going to "gut" Kevin McBride "like a fish" in tomorrow night's heavyweight fight at MCI Center. Tyson, the former two-time heavyweight champion, will need a pretty big knife if he's going to do it.
McBride, an Irishman who was hand-picked by Tyson's advisers to face the fighter formerly known as the "Baddest Man on the Planet," weighed in at a whopping 271 pounds -- 38 pounds heavier than Tyson -- in yesterday's weigh-in at Howard University's Blackburn Center Ballroom. It is McBride's heaviest weight in 38 professional fights.
McBride, 32, is 6 feet 6 (seven inches taller than Tyson) and has an 11-inch advantage in reach.
"That's what I expected, definitely," Goody Petronelli, McBride's trainer, said of his fighter's weight. "He put muscle on. I think that's a definite advantage. A good big man will beat a good little man."
Tyson (50-5, 44 knockouts) also weighed 233 pounds when he was knocked out in the fourth round by unknown Englishman Danny Williams in Louisville on July 30. Tyson, who turns 39 on June 30, never weighed more than 222 pounds in his first 51 professional fights; he weighed 233 or more in three of his previous four bouts, losing to Lennox Lewis and Williams.
McBride (32-4-1, 27 knockouts) knocked out his last seven opponents, last losing when he entered the ring weighing 270 pounds. DaVarryl Williamson, a 211-pounder, knocked out McBride in the fifth round in Las Vegas on Jan. 18, 2002.
Rich Cappiello, McBride's adviser, said the fighter lost eight pounds of body fat and added 15 pounds of muscle while working out with a strength and conditioning coach for the first time in his 13-year pro career.
"I'm telling you right now, he's in the best shape of his career," Cappiello said. "There's no excuses. Win, lose or draw, he's done everything he could do to prepare for this fight."
Hasim Rahman, a former heavyweight champion in 2001, said McBride's weight shouldn't be much of a concern.
"Nobody gave Danny Williams a chance when he weighed 265," Rahman said.
