Paschal Collins recalled his most memorable heavyweight victories as he prepared to lead Alen Babic in his fight with Johnny Fisher.
The 33-year-old Babic from Croatia will be the underdog on Saturday night against the popular Fisher at London’s Copper Box Arena, largely because the bigger Fisher is considered to be more devastating and has more punching power.
Collins and Babic are preparing for their second fight after Steve Robinson was stopped in another part of the English capital in March, but the Dublin coach is not at all intimidated by their status given he has faced much greater adversity before.
The Irishman helped prepare fellow countryman Kevin McBride for his 2005 fight with the great Mike Tyson, with Tyson, likewise, expected to win. As with the unbeaten Fisher, there were also wider plans for Tyson to step into a bigger fight following a victory, but Collins, working with Goody Petronelli – once so influential in the career of the great Marvin Hagler – helped ensure McBride had his best night.
“I’ve known Kevin for a long time,” the coach said. “We fought together as amateurs and then in America I trained with Petronelli [Goody and Pat] in Brockton. Kevin had a career in the UK; he finally got a few knocks; his contract ended and he moved to America, so we lived together for a while. We knew each other; we both went to the gym; we trained together. I took him for runs and looked after his diet, but Kevin wasn’t really living. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to – he just didn’t have the knowledge.
“We both fought on the Main Event card at Foxwoods Casino; I split up [cut] about a week, but we trained together. I wasn’t on the card; Kevin was on the card. Kevin said, “Will you still aid me get ready?” which I did. He went, got a huge win at Foxwoods [stopping Kevin Montiy]and then he was offered a fight with Mike Tyson.
“The first thing he said was, ‘Will you aid me get ready?’ So we moved to Brockton for two months—we lived in Boston—30 miles away. The reason I moved to Brockton was because DW Park was a place where Rocky Marciano used to run, because he’s from Brockton, and it’s right next to our gym. It was the same run that Rocky Marciano used to run every day. We went back to basics; we did road workouts, because it’s all about fitness—fighting Tyson at 39 years elderly.
“If you’re sturdy enough, fit enough, and have the right game plan, you can beat him. You just [made] training camp really tough training camp. Game plan, we looked at the Lennox Lewis-Tyson fight; we looked at Danny Williams, who had just beaten Tyson. “When he gets close, lean into him, put your chest on his head and put your weight on him.” We did that – and the hook, and that’s where Danny Williams was throwing his punches.
“We were lucky – we watched the fights that Tyson lost. We had a proper training camp, and the night before the fight we went to the movies to see Cinderella Man – the premiere. We went. ‘Kevin, it’s you – how ironic. It’s going to be you, Cinderella Man.'” Washington, DC.
“It was the night before the fight, and the next day we were there, and it was 99 percent Tyson fans and one percent Irish. But Kevin just knew he had a chance, and as the fight went on, he felt he had more of a chance because Tyson was headbutting him; trying to break his arm; hitting him low. He did everything Tyson did to win, and we knew Tyson was worried because when he goes into those tactics, other tactics don’t work. ‘Kevin, keep going; keep putting weight on.'”
Forty seconds into the sixth round, referee Joe Cortez deducted two points from Tyson for intentionally headbutting McBride, who suffered a cut above his right eye. McBride, then 34, absorbed Tyson’s pressure and had Tyson on the ropes by the end of the round.
He did so with a series of right hooks and uppercuts that hurt the once feared former world heavyweight champion, to the point where he landed on his buttocks on the board and was partially held upright by the bottom rope.
That Cortez ruled that McBride had pressured Tyson—he was reportedly paid $5 million—was likely a demonstration of the extent to which those involved wanted Tyson to end the June 11, 2005, fight with his 51st victory. Tyson’s trainer, Jeff Fenech, nevertheless felt his fighter had little left to offer. He told Cortez at the end of the round that Tyson would not return for a seventh fight. Cortez waved off the action. McBride secured a life-changing victory.
“It wore him out and took his legs, so when Kevin started hitting Tyson, Tyson just went down because he was exhausted,” Collins said. “He had had enough. He couldn’t take another five, six rounds. He had no energy left, and that was it.
“I didn’t like Tyson being abused. People were throwing bottles at Mike Tyson. I didn’t like that because anyone who knew boxing knew that Mike Tyson at 26, 27 years elderly was beating up anybody, and they should have respected the fact that he was an older man. For Kevin McBride, it was a huge win, and people don’t give him credit because Kevin was 34; he had a couple of losses; he was a drunk.
“He’s been sober for seven years now and that fight changed his whole life. That was a huge night for me because, believe it or not, I was still boxing at the time. That was my first time getting involved in coaching. After the fight, people were calling me up, getting ready for fights. That was it – that’s how I started training.
“[It was] one of the best nights as a coach. It was probably one of the best nights because me and Goody Petronelli were there. He was my coach and Goody was like a father to me and Kevin. He was coming to the end and it was something we did together.
“Every year in June I get a call and someone wants to talk to Kevin about it. That was probably one of the best wins I’m known for. It was a great night – a great night for Kevin and his family and for Clones [in Ireland].
“But it was such a bittersweet moment because I looked at Mike Tyson and thought, ‘He wasn’t the same Mike Tyson.’ Don’t take anything away from Kevin — Tyson came in to fight, and if Kevin had quit after three or four rounds, Tyson would have beaten him. But Kevin didn’t quit — he’s a huge, tough guy — and Tyson quit because he didn’t have any fight left in him.”
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