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O.T- Tyson to fight again in June


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heavyweight champ set for fight in June

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

Dan Rafael Archive

Eleven months after suffering a shocking fourth-round knockout loss to Danny Williams, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson is coming back to the ring.

Tyson (50-5, 44 KOs) will attend a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Washington to announce that he will fight Kevin McBride on June 11 on a Showtime pay-per-view card at the MCI Center.

McBride (32-4-1, 27 KOs) was supposed to have been Tyson's opponent last July, but financial terms couldn't be reached, and with the proposed match already taking a beating in the media as a gross mismatch, organizers upgraded to Williams in what turned out to be a huge mistake.

Now, however, Tyson is coming off a crushing knockout loss -- in which he badly injured his left knee -- and nearly a year of inactivity, and McBride appears to be just the sort of opponent that the doctor ordered. The native of Ireland is 6-foot-6, 265 pounds, but slow and not particularly skilled. He's been knocked out in each of his losses against modest opposition.

"I'm glad for Mike. I'm glad he's getting on with his career," manager Shelly Finkel said. "Mike is happy to be fighting back on the East Coast. It's been about 10 years."

Tyson's last East Coast appearance was a third-round knockout of Buster Mathis Jr. in Philadelphia in 1995.

Tyson began working out last week in Phoenix with new trainer Jeff Fenech, the Hall of Famer with whom Tyson has been close for years, to prepare for the bout. Finkel said Tyson has not reported any problems with the knee, which required surgery after the Williams bout.

The Tyson pay-per-view fight will face stiff competition from a live HBO card at Madison Square Garden in which rising star Miguel Cotto defends his junior welterweight title against 2000 Olympic gold medalist Mohamed Abdullaev in a rematch of their Olympic meeting. Also, former champ Joel Casamayor faces hot contender Almazbek Raimkulov in a lightweight fight.

Finkel is confident the public still wants to watch Tyson.

"I would have preferred not to be on the same date (as HBO), but they're going almost every week in June, so what can you do?" Finkel said. "I don't think it will affect us."

Laila Ali (20-0, 17 KOs), daughter of Muhammad Ali, will also be featured on the card, her third appearance on a Tyson bill. She'll face Erin Toughill (6-1-1) in a super middleweight fight.

Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.

Tyson to pay all his obligations has to keep fighting- his name and bad reputation draws people but this pay for view you have to be crazy to pay for.

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I know McBride from my days back in school, he's from Clones, just a few miles away from here.

If he beats Tyson, this area'll go mad, like when McGuigan won his title in the 80's.

Barry McGuigan-tough Irish fighter I remember- the lower weight classes give some of the best action packed fights.

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