Boxing: I have nothing to prove, says relaxed Tyson

Former champion Mike Tyson hopes to regain some desperately needed credibility as a heavyweight contender when he faces unheralded Irishman Kevin McBride on Saturday.

Tyson, just three weeks shy of his 39th birthday, has looked a pale shadow of his former self while losing two of his last three fights and needs a convincing win to have any chance at another title shot.

"Old too soon, smart too late," Tyson said after a pre-fight workout.

Following a rape conviction, bankruptcy, biting opponents' ears in the ring and failed marriages, Tyson does not display the volatile temper that defined his early years.

"As you get older, you realize the mistakes that you've made," he said.

Tyson no longer fuels pre-fight news conferences with explosive threats and physical confrontations with his opponents.

In fact, Tyson said if he never gets another chance at the title, "it won't be the end of my life.

"The heavyweight championship of the world -- that doesn't define Mike Tyson or who he is," he said. "That defines people who are insecure of themselves.

"I know who I am. I have nothing to prove to anybody." Tyson's weight of 105kg is the same amount he weighed last July when he was knocked out in the fourth round by little-known Englishman Danny Williams.

The 32-year-old McBride is 122kg and has won his last seven fights. He is also the former sparring partner for Kevin McNeely, whom Tyson defeated in 89 seconds following his release from prison in 1995.

"I'm a contender, not a pretender," offered McBride, who sports a 32-4-1 record and will make US$150,000 ($213,000) from Saturday's fight. "I'm going to shock the world."

Despite advancing age and declining skills, Tyson remains a strong draw. Promoters said they have already sold 14,000 tickets and could see a sellout at the 17,000-seat MCI Center.

Tyson, who will earn US$5 million from the fight, said he is no longer concerned about money. Despite earning hundreds of millions in the ring, he remains about US$10 million in debt.

"I'm not a money guy. If I was a money guy, I'd still have all the money I had. Money never made me who I was," he said.

- REUTERS