The last man to beat boxing legend Mike Tyson in the ring has left the sport behind and is now working as a tree surgeon after fighting addiction for more than a decade
Almost 20 years have passed since Kevin McBride shocked the world by beating Mike Tyson – but he’s since swapped hacking down heavyweights for chopping trees.
The Irishman pulled off one of the upsets of the century when Tyson failed to answer the bell for the seventh round of their clash in 2005. ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ had lost before facing McBride, but this was an upset of entirely different proportions which led to Tyson’s permanent retirement from the professional scene.
One might think that legacy as one of the rare few to have bested ‘Iron’ Mike – who fights Jake Paul on November 15 – would forge a path to greatness. But almost two decades later, ‘The Clones Colossus’ is more at home on a branch than in the ring.
“I work with a tree surgeon now,” he told the Daily Mail in 2020. “He has me dropping trees, clearing snow, shouting ‘timber’ and all that. It is good. It keeps me busy. My job is I pick things up and I put things down.”
Having revelled in the glitz and glamour that comes with a pro boxing career, 51-year-old McBride is a man of much simpler tastes these days. He lives in Boston with his wife and two children, though he’s endured real struggle to attain the no-frills lifestyle he now enjoys.
McBride suffered with an alcohol addiction after losing six of his eight fights in the aftermath of stunning Tyson, eventually retiring in 2011 having failed to ever recapture those heights. He referred to alcoholism as “a bigger fight” than any other in his life, though he appears to have his vice beaten thus far.
“Hard to believe it’s been so long,” said the County Monaghan native regarding the biggest result of his career. “It is coming up more often at the moment because every time they say about him making a comeback, they say I was the last guy to beat him.
“I like that. I don’t sit around re-watching the fight but someone put a clip on Facebook recently and I saw it — dream come true, isn’t it?”
For a man who hails from a town that boasts a population of less than 2,000, there’s no better way to put it. McBride soared to the pinnacle of his craft before the fall, though he’ll forever hold a privileged place in the boxing annals.
Tyson will make his first professional appearance since that upset when he takes on ‘The Problem Child’ Paul in Arlington, Texas, next week. And the 58-year-old returns to the ring with a mission to in part make up for that miss as he looks to add another chapter to one of the greatest legacies in the game.
