http://youtube.com/watch?v=_I4heOtgfSk&sea...0vs.%20McNeeleyMike Tyson(41 wins, 1 loss, 36 KO's / From: Catskill, NY, 220 lbs.)vs.
Peter McNeeley(36 wins, 1 loss, 30 KO's / From: Medfield, MA, 215 lbs.)Referee: Mills Lane
From the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, broadcasted on August 19th, 1995, and rebroadcasted on Showtime courtesy of Pay-Per-View... now a small rant. This is why I'll never pay $50 for a Boxing PPV. The biggest fight of the night is always replayed on cable. Sure, the shows have 6-7 fights usually, but most of them are undercard crap no one cares about. In most cases like Tyson fights, he's the draw, and it doesn't matter what else is on the card. Much like every Tyson fight in the last decade, I went with option B. Waiting 4 weeks for the replay to see Tyson kill some poor schmuck (until he fought legit contenders like Holyfield and Lewis... and Danny Williams?!?)
Anyway, onto the fight at hand. Unless you have zero knowledge of boxing, this was Tyson's first fight in nearly 4 years, having been released from prison earlier in the year (convicted of raping a Miss Black America participant). Unless you live in Massachuesetts, you probably have no idea who McNeeley is. He's basically one of those club fighters who fought no one of note. While some will argue the first 20 or so fights of Tyson's career were hardly legit threats, some of them probably had more credentials than the bums McNeeley fought. Go check out his list of opponents on hurricanepetermcneeley.com and tell me if you recognize any of those names, even for a bad reason.
After the super-long introduction of Tyson from Jimmy Lennon Jr., we finally... get the face to face. Tyson honestly looks like he wants to kill someone, while McNeeley bobbles around back and forth like he has to take a piss or really drunk... or stupid (Insert Irishman/Alcohol Joke Here). Despite being in jail and having zero fights for about 44 months, Tyson is recognized as the #1 Contender of... whatever promotion. WBC? WBF? Who the hell cares, all the belts are worth the price of toilet paper these days anyway.
Round 1: Much like in all of his fights (according to the broadcast team), McNeeley gets a jump start on the bell and quickly goes after Tyson. Hey, the guy may be a chump, but at least he has balls to go FOR Tyson to start the fight, considering Tyson's fighting plan of going for the Knockout in Round 1 rather than feel out the opponent. 6-seconds into the fight, and Tyson drops McNeeley with a combination of hooks. McNeeley isn't phased, though. McNeeley goes after Tyson again, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, but Tyson is simply shrugging it off or using his quick head movement to dodge most of the shots. Tyson gets mad after McNeeley tries some cheap shit fighting while in a clutch (Lane: Knock that shit off!), and unleashes a series of hooks and uppercuts, putting McNeeley down on his ass for the second time at 1:21. McNeeley is up again, but his corner men interrupt and bring him into the corner, and eventually Lane calls it a Disqualification in favor of Mike Tyson for the circumstances with McNeeley's gaggle of losers.
Winner: Mike Tyson by Disqualification at 1:39 into Round 1.
To make a Wrestling/Boxing Comparison, Mike Tyson squash---er, "Undercard" Fights remind me a lot of the Ultimate Warrior. You always knew he was just going to obliterate his opponent, but something inside of you wanted to see the poor schmo that has no chance make it much further than expected... and in almost every case, that never came true, since Tyson KO'ed every scrub he faced and Warrior was booked to be indestructable.