February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“I was supposed to fight him twice before, when Danny Williams fought him and when Pete McNeely fought him,” McBride said.
“This will be the third time lucky. I’ll beat Tyson and go on to win the world title and become the first Irish-born heavyweight champion of the world,” he added, exuding confidence.
“This is an opportunity of a life time and I’m looking forward to shocking the world. If I don’t shock the world, I’ll shock Ireland.”
The “Clones Colossus” said he was in great shape for the Tyson match, billed “Capitol Punishment!” to take place at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., after three-weeks of sparring with Calvin Brock before the undefeated heavyweight’s recent win over Jameel McCline, who, like McBride, stands 6-foot-6 inches.
Prior to that, McBride, who’s 31, had ended a 15-month layoff with a 5th round TKO of Kevin Montiy at Foxwoods Resort Casino last March.
He was criticized for his slow, plodding effort in that bout, but promised a better performance against Tyson.
“Last time I was not that quick — I hadn’t fought for a year and a half. But now I’m much quicker,” he said. “I’ll be as sharp as a razor. I’m going to come out guns blazing. I want my timing to be perfect. I’ll take it to him from the first bell.”
How confident is McBride (32-4-1, 27 KOs)? The All-Irish titlist and holder of the very fringe IBC Americas belt has even been rehearsing his pre-fight comments.
“When the referee says any questions, I’ll say ‘no excuses tonight, Mike.'”
Dismissing the journeyman label tagged on him by the most of the fight media, McBride believes that he has four to six years of boxing left in him and would show fans that he was a serious fighter.
“I don’t want to be a pretender, I want to be a contender. Like fine wine, I get better with age,” he rhymed, dedicating the fight to his seven-month daughter Grainne and her mother Danielle.
Paschal Collins, brother of Ireland’s only two-time world champion, Steve Collins, will play a key role in McBride’s camp for the Tyson fight.
“I’ll be doing his weight training, diet, mental and physical (conditioning) and I’ll be his baby sitter, too,” said Collins.
The still active super middleweight will leave the technical preparation to Goody Petronelli, who previously worked with Collins and another middleweight great, Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
A veteran of some of Steve’s world championship training camps, Collins is expected to tap into his experience to whip McBride into top shape for the biggest fight of the Clones native’s professional career.
“His conditioning will be 110 percent and he’ll be mentally and physically ready. The rest will be up to Kevin. It will be up to (him) whether he wants it or not,” said Collins.
On the fight plan for June 11, the assistant trainer turned on its head the general consensus that McBride needs to survive the early rounds to have any chance of upsetting Tyson, saying:
“It’s actually going to be if Tyson can survive the first couple of rounds with Kevin. We’ve watched Tyson’s last couple of fights and we’re coming to win the fight. We’re going to knock out Tyson early in the fight.”
Collins, who’s known McBride for 16 years, intimated that the heavyweight’s real potential has yet to be realized since he’s never really been in top shape for any of his professional fights.
“Kevin has never been in shape his whole career. This is the first time that he’s going in (training) camp for a fight,” he explained. “He’s been in camp with other fighters including Lennox Lewis but never for any of his fights.”
McBride and Lewis, the now retired ex-world champion, were once stable mates under Panix Promotions and sparred together numerous times.