By Frank Lotierzo
In two weeks former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson (50-5) will fight Kevin McBride (32-4-1) in his first fight since he was stopped by Danny Williams last July. When Tyson meets McBride, it will mark exactly three years almost to the day that he fought Lennox Lewis for the heavyweight title. Against Lewis, Tyson was competitive for the first round and about half of the second. Starting in round three, Tyson didn't show anything other than he could take a punch, finally succumbing to Lewis in round eight.
Since losing to Lewis, Tyson is 1-1. However, it will cost at least forty dollars to watch him attempt to do to McBride what the plan was set up for him to do against Danny Williams, score an impressive knockout inside of two or three rounds. With the state of today's heavyweight division, Tyson is never more than one spectacular knockout from being in the heavyweight mix. The fact that McBride was stopped by the only two good heavyweights he ever fought before fighting Tyson won't matter a bit. Luckily for Tyson, a majority of his most ardent fans are bigger fans of him than they are boxing. They want to see Tyson knock somebody out, it doesn't matter who the victim is as long as Tyson looked impressive.
It's amazing how Mike Tyson is probably still the biggest draw in professional boxing. Some may argue Oscar De La Hoya holds that distinction, but they're wrong. Let's see De La Hoya nine years removed from the last time he held a piece of a world title, having been stopped in his last bout, fight a journeyman 19 days short of turning 39 and it be a PPV event. Not a chance in the world. On top of that, Tyson hasn't beat a top heavyweight since June of 1991 when he won a unanimous decision over Razor Ruddock in their rematch.
If there is another fighter in boxing who can go 14 years without scoring a single victory over an upper-tier fighter that can justify a fight against an opponent, which is all McBride is, as a pay-per-view attraction, I've never heard of him. In Mike Tyson, you have a fighter who has lost in a convincing fashion to the two best fighters of his era that were both older and less protected than he was.
Being a boxing purest and a bigger fan of boxing than any one fighter, makes it hard for me to comprehend why Tyson still has a cult like following. I've always believed that when all is said and done, what matters the most in the final analysis is, who did the fighter beat and lose to during his career says the most about him. For anyone who thinks differently, ask yourself where Muhammad Ali would rank in heavyweight history if he went 1-5 versus Liston, Frazier and Foreman, instead of 5-1? It's safe to say Ali wouldn't even be in the conversation regarding heavyweight histories greatest champions.
Tyson represents hope for a lot of fringe boxing fans that bought the story they were sold when they first learned who Tyson was. In other words, the most brilliant marketing campaign/strategy in history, not sports history, is still at play today. This is because Tyson had the one skill that even a novice boxing observer could see and identify with, two handed punching power. He was marketed as if it was humanly impossible for another mortal fighter to survive being hit by him. Only after he lost was it said he must also be in top shape.
This campaign was so effective that he was thought by some to be unbeatable. Thus they needed an excuse after he was beaten so convincingly to accept what they thought was impossible. Believe it or not, there is still a large faction of fans who think all Tyson has to do is get in shape and remain active and he can win back the title, although most of them won't openly admit it. Sadly, they're are not completely off the mark.
Just look over today's heavyweight landscape, who is so terrific among the top five or six fighters that it can be said Tyson has no shot to beat? How many of them could've survived the assault that Williams did, which enabled him to be around to pounce on Tyson when he ran out of gas? Not too many!
The bottom line is today's heavyweight division is dreadful, even the top fighters in it have been quoted as saying so. Throw the best two round fighter in heavyweight history into it, Mike Tyson, how can he be counted out. Even when he has been literally counted out it hasn't prevented him from stimulating interest in his next fight.
For two rounds Mike Tyson is still very dangerous, enough so that he's 50-50 versus the best the heavyweight division has to offer in 2005. On June 11th in his fight with Kevin McBride, if Tyson does what he was supposed to do in his last fight, he's back in title contention. The prospects of Tyson fighting Byrd, Toney, Rahman, Brewster and Klitschko will start being bantered about until he loses again.
And he'll still be just one devastating knockout from the doorstep of the heavyweight title throne, all four of them. Not until the day comes when Tyson is no longer capable of knocking out journeymen will it end for good.
