After being knocked out in the fourth round of his previous fight against Danny Williams, Mike Tyson took a lengthy hiatus as he contimplated whether or not he would continue to fight. In April of 2005, Tyson officially announced his return to boxing to take on little-known Irish journeyman Kevin McBride on June 11 in Washington, D.C.. Though the 38–year old Tyson was far removed from his prime, he nevertheless predicted an easy victory, vowing to "gut (McBride) like a fish" while also calling his opponent a "tomato can". McBride, however, remained confident that he could upset Tyson and promised that he would "shock the world" by defeating Tyson Prior to the fight, Tyson parted ways with trainer Freddie Roach, who had trained Tyson for his two previous fights against Clifford Etienne in 2003 and Williams in 2004, and replaced him with former super bantamweight champion Jeff Fenech.
