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Tyson camp KOs McBride

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Money is apparently the reason for Team Tyson’s decision to dump McBride, the Clones native’s manager, Richie Cappiello, disclosed in Boston last Saturday.
“We were all set for the fight and waiting to get the contract after we’d agreed on $450,000,” Cappiello said.
“Then two days ago I get a phone call saying that they got another guy for $250,000. So, basically, it was take it or leave it.
“How do I justify this to my fighter? No training expenses, no nothing. I won’t allow Kevin to fight for nothing,” Cappiello insisted, even though it would have been McBride’s biggest payday.
“It was a money issue,” Tyson advisor Shelly Finkel was quoted as saying by MaxBoxing.com
Finkel further endorsed McBride’s substitute as being a better foe for the financially strapped Tyson, saying: “I think he’s a better opponent. He’s a former European champion, he brings English TV, and larger revenue.”
The 30-year-old Williams stands six-foot-3 and is 31-3 (26 KOs) since turning pro in 1995.
An irate McBride, who has dreamed of fighting Tyson since a youth, said that he’d talk to his lawyer about taking legal action against Tyson’s camp. He said they had a verbal agreement on the fight that he’s had to spurn other fight offers while waiting for the Tyson bout to materialize.
McBride disputed Finkel’s claim that Williams was a more suitable opponent for Tyson, saying, “I feel that I’m a better draw than Danny Williams because I had people coming from Ireland [for the fight], from Boston, from New York and from other parts of the country. Thousands of them.”
Cappiello said Team Tyson’s decision to spurn McBride was unfortunate.
“We agreed on this two months ago and sat and waited patiently,” he said. “We had our bags packed, ready to go [to training camp].”
He said the 6-foot-6 “Clones Colossus” could have presented a real challenge to the 5-10 Tyson, who at age 38 is not the Tyson of old.
“He’s a big, strong kid and he can punch,” Cappiello said of McBride, who has 26 KOs on his 31-4-1 ledger. “He could have brought the fight to Tyson. He could have been the next great Irish fighter.”
McBride concurred.
“I think Tyson’s people are not stupid,” he said. “They’re wary of my reach and power. I know that Tyson is beatable and I know how to beat him.”
At any rate, Cappiello intends to spend little time mopping over what could have been in the pay-per-view contest.
“The good thing is that Kevin’s name is out there,” he said. “We’ll take the exposure we’ve had out of this and move forward. We’ll not going to sit and cry over this.”
Cappiello briefly mulled throwing the gauntlet down at Audley Harrison, the rising British heavyweight and former Olympic gold medallist who improved to 17-0 last weekend with a 9th round TKO of Polish Tomasz Bonin in London.
Based in Brockton, Mass., McBride is both the Irish titlist and holder of the fringe IBC Americas heavyweight belt.
The 31-year-old’s last bout was a third-round TKO of Marcus Rhode in Boston last December.

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