The fight began in a strange fashion, as Tyson did not immediately try to impose his will on McBride, by coming straight for him in his usual style. Instead, Mike looked almost serene as he was overly patient, not showing the aggression and zeal that made him such a devastating knockout puncher. By not being as aggressive, Tyson gave McBride the extra confidence that would eventually put him over the top.  

Despite looking like a shadow of his former self, Mike was still able to win the first three rounds with hard body shots, his best punches in the fight. McBride, on the other hand, did most of his work up close by either leaning his big body on Tyson or by holding and hitting. In round #5 the tide began to change as McBride, blistering with confidence of having survived this far, came out very aggressively and for the first time with the intention of not simply surviving the round but with the intention of hurting Tyson as he let his hands go. While Mike was able to land a few hard shots McBride was able to take away some of his power by smothering his punches. 

Round six turned out to be the pivotal round of the fight; the round where the drama that seems to define Mike Tyson took place. McBride seized the initiative and began to land solid uppercuts and chopping right hands with good accuracy and solid consistency. At this juncture, Mike lost his composure, and tried to hurt McBride’s arm by twisting it as he did in the Francois Botha fight. After this sequence, Mike further showed his frustration by giving McBride a cut above his left eye with what was ruled to be an intentional head-butt. Joe Cortez, trying to get the fight back under his control, took 2 points from Tyson for the head-butt. At the end of the round Tyson went down from a push but was very slow to get up nevertheless. At the conclusion of the round, Tyson’s corner thought it best that the fight be stopped as it became painfully obvious that Mike was not going to win the fight and that the only possible ending was him either getting hurt or knocked out. The official result has Kevin McBride winner by TKO at the end of round #6. 

In the post fight interview Tyson took time to apologize to all his fans for his poor performance. The visibly disappointed Tyson said “I don’t have this in my heart anymore” and “I was fighting to take care of my bills.” He openly admitted to the world that he was in fact finished as a fighter because we all know a fighter who can’t motivate himself cannot succeed in a tough sport like boxing. It is not surprising, at least to me, that after all these years of punishment, drama, and struggle, “Iron” Mike has finally had enough.