February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By press time, McBride’s Boston lawyer, Mike Moynihan, was scrambling to contact the “Clones Colossus” at a training camp near Pittsburgh to start the drum beat at the historic Lincoln Theater for the bout dubbed “Capitol Punishment!”
Promoted by Marty Wynn of Raging Promotions, the non-title contest will be broadcast on Showtime pay-per-view and will feature Laila Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, in the co-main event. Laila will defend her IBA super middleweight championship against Erin Toughill.
Moynihan confirmed on Monday that McBride, who holds the All-Ireland and fringe IBC Americas heavyweight titles, had signed a contract “for an undisclosed six-figure amount.”
McBride (32-4-1, 27 KOs) is coming off a fifth round TKO of Kevin Montiy at Foxwoods in Connecticut last month, his first bout in 15 months.
The 31-year-old Irish champion was supposed to fight Tyson (50-5, 44 KOs) in July last year but Team Tyson decided to cut their initial purse offer by nearly half and when McBride balked, opted for the cheaper Danny Williams.
McBride had the last laugh when Williams knocked out Tyson in the fourth round. Tyson, a two-time world champion, suffered a knee injury in the process and has not fought since.
The youngest man to win the world heavyweight title when he knocked out then WBC holder Trevor Berbick at age 20 in 1986, Tyson is training in Phoenix under Australian Jeff Fenech, the a former world featherweight titlist.