BEVERLY HILLS, April 11, (THEWILL) –Â Retired heavyweight boxing Hall-of-Famer, Evander Holyfield, who has not been in any competitive boxing bout since 2011, is set to make a celebrated return to the ring on Saturday, June 5, against the equally-retired Irish professional boxer, Kevin Martin McBride, in an eight-round exhibition card.
Since a 2011 technical knockout defeat to Brian Nielson, Holyfield has been out of the sport. His interest in returning stemmed from an opportunity to take on one of his fiercest rivals, “Iron” Mike Tyson, especially after the latter’s widely successful November 28 “Legends Only” fight against Roy Jones Jr.
However, despite assurances from Iron Mike, both sides failed to come to an agreement on terms and that has placed an indefinite hold on the reality of the fight ever happening.
In the remarkably memorable heavyweight careers Tyson and Holyfield had in their younger active days, the pair fought each other twice.
The second time in 1997, the highly anticipated fight ended with the unfortunate disqualification of Tyson for biting off a piece of Holyfield’s ear in the thick of their ferocious boxing match.
Iron Mike, who has a story to tell of how much of a changed man and boxer he is, remains pleased with the difference his return to the ring is making and the number of veteran boxers who are getting back into the ring and getting into shape to do what they know how to do best. He is also overjoyed with the response of the boxing bodies and the fans and wants to do more good for the world.
He had earlier admitted to looking forward to fighting Holyfield, as soon as agreements are sorted but has his eyes on other possible bouts against famed boxers like Lennox Lewis and Tyson Fury in exhibition matches like November fight against Jones Jr.
For the 58-year-old Holyfield, this is not the time to wait indefinitely for an agreement sorting that is taking forever to finalise. As a stop gap, Holyfield has reached out and worked in a fight for himself and will now be back in the ring against McBride, the veteran Irish boxer.
Holyfield will put his 44-10-2 professional record on the line against the younger McBride’s 35-10-1. It was the 47-year-old Irishman that ended Tyson’s original boxing career with a TKO victory in their 2005 fight. That was one of the 29 KOs in Mcbride’s active days career before his 2011 retirement.
The match of two of Iron Mike’s beaters is scheduled to be eight, two-minute rounds without any headgear.
It will be held in Miami, USA.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
