?When my kids grow up they can say their daddy kicked Mike Tyson?s ass. That?s something to be proud of I suppose??
On June 11, 2005, at the MCI Center in Washington, DC, ham-and-egger Kevin McBride (32-4-1 at the time) fought the fight of his life against legendary Mike Tyson (50-5). Tyson was no longer the formidable Iron Man of old. He had lost two of his last three fights, knockouts to Lennox Lewis and Danny Williams in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and the end was in sight.
Approaching the 12th anniversary of that life-defining bout, McBride, from Brockton, Massachusetts, by way of Clones, Ireland, remembers what that victory meant then and what it means today.
Courtesy of The Irish News, McBride opened up about that night with little prompting.
?When my kids grow up,? he said with pride, ?they can say my daddy kicked Mike Tyson?s ass.?
Mike Tyson was a shadow of his former self when he fought McBride. No one articulated The Fall with the righteous indignation of Joyce Carol Oates: ?Who is to blame for this most recent of sports disgraces in America? The culture that flings young athletes like Tyson out of obscurity, makes millionaires of them and watches them self-destruct??
Tyson?s decline was precipitous. His skills had eroded. His enthusiasm had waned. He still had the aura which clings to world champions forever. A man of extremes, in and out of the ring (?I?m just a normal person?extremely to the extreme?), when he was riding high he could touch the sky. But when he was down it was to the ground. Having disgraced himself in the rematch with Holyfield in 1997, the so-called ?Bite of the Century,? it appears he came away from the experience empty-handed.
?Tyson said he didn?t know why he bit Holyfield?s ear,? Oates wrote in ITALICFury and Fine Lines (1997), ?he just ?snapped?. We can take him at his word. If there?s an explanation, he doesn?t know it.?
Lennox Lewis had a biting experience with Mike Tyson, as did Kevin McBride, who remembers when Tyson ?tried to bite my nipple off. I was like ?what?s this bollox doing?!? Thank God he had the mouthpiece in because otherwise he wouldn?t have slipped off and my nipple would?ve been in his mouth.
?If that had happened, nobody would know me as the guy who beat Mike Tyson?I?d just be the guy who was left standing there in the ring with one nipple. That?s how I?d be remembered.?
Tyson was fighting to maintain legitimacy. ?I was just fighting to pay off the bills,? he said. ?I?m not an animal anymore.?
Animal or not, Tyson could still build a gate. He said, ?I?m not going to disrespect the sport any more by losing to this caliber of fighter.?
McBride had a respectable record, especially before beating Tyson, but went on to lose six of his last seven fights, to men like Mariusz Wach, Tomasz Adamek, Axel Schulz, and Andrew Golota.
?I don?t care what people say,? bristled McBride. ?When you jump in the ring with anybody, let alone Mike Tyson, it?s no joke. I don?t pass no remarks. It?s something special to know in my own heart that I beat a man of that stature.
?They can call me a journeyman or call me whatever they want, I did enough to get to where I got to.
?I beat Mike Tyson. It doesn?t matter what anyone says, they can?t take that away from me.?
McBride made history that night. He retired Mike Tyson.
?In 20 years from now, people will still look back and say that man Kevin McBride from Clones, county Monaghan knocked out Mike Tyson.
?And when my kids grow up they can say their daddy kicked Mike Tyson?s ass. That?s something to be proud of I suppose.?
