Tax man is Tyson's biggest opponent

WASHINGTON -- Mike Tyson will face a major challenge tonight, but it's not likely to come from Kevin McBride.

When the aging former heavyweight champion climbs into the ring at the MCI Center, no one will know how many people paid $44.95 to watch him on Showtime pay-per-view, but they will determine his future considerably more than McBride will.

If Tyson can draw 200,000 or more viewers at that price to watch him fight an opponent who is considered less than a journeyman, he will have reestablished his power where it counts the most in prizefighting -- at the cash register. If he fails to do that, he will have to take a bigger risk in his next outing, and risk is something a man wants to avoid when he's trying to pay off $34 million in debts and he only has a few chances left to do it.

In a sad way, Tyson is repeating the history of one of boxing's greatest heavyweights, Joe Louis. Hounded by the IRS, Louis was forced to come out of retirement and sacrifice his pride and his body to pay off the tax man until he was left half-conscious in the press section at Madison Square Garden, which is where another product of the Brockton gyms where McBride now trains, Rocky Marciano, deposited him.

That night the great sportswriter Red Smith wrote of the sadness of looking up and finding himself staring at a bald spot atop Louis's head as he tried to help him back into the ring.

There seems little worry that McBride can do to Tyson what Marciano did to Louis, but with his 39th birthday approaching June 30, Tyson understands he has precious few fights left to regain his full earning power.

''It's the Tyson phenomenon," programming director Jay Larkin said of the economic environment that has sold more than 13,000 tickets to what is believed to be a non-competitive match. ''He was drilled into the public psyche 20 years ago and he's still there.

''There's never been [an economic] force like him. There's no one in the heavyweight division an opponent can make more money with than fighting Mike Tyson."

That is true even for McBride, who will earn only $150,000 to Tyson's $5 million. That is nearly 10 times his greatest previous payday and he has welcomed it and what he perceives to be his grand moment.

McBride has certainly labored hard to prepare himself for a fight so few believe he has a chance to win.

He has trained long and hard under the direction of Goody Petronelli and Paschal Collins, younger brother of former super middleweight champion Steve Collins. He's run the roads at 6 a.m. He's lifted weights at 7 p.m. He's sparred three and four times a week at 1 p.m.

He's even worked with a hypnotist to push out negative thoughts. He has done all he could and will not stop there.

Sometime before tonight's fight, Collins has said his fighter will be put into a trance that will exist until someone snaps his fingers just before the first bell sounds and frees his spirit. According to Collins, it is a way to assure the unheralded McBride will not be intimidated by the crowd or Tyson's presence.

Collins claimed earlier this week that such a hypnotic state, though ended with a snap of the fingers, will allow McBride to take more punishment and be more aware in the ring. If the fight goes as most experts expect, however, being more aware of what's going on may not work in McBride's favor, but McBride believes much of the mystique of Tyson is gone now, along with what created it.

''His speed isn't there anymore," said McBride (32-4-1). ''He's an older man. I'm the bigger, stronger man. I've got a hypnotist on board. There's no way I'll be intimidated."

At least not until the first time Tyson attacks him with the savagery with which he has overwhelmed so many other fighters. But McBride is anticipating that kind of attack for a few rounds and seems to believe he can absorb all those painful punches like a sponge while waiting for Hurricane Mike to blow itself out before making a bit of noise of his own.

To do that, of course, he first has to survive the storm, which is where most people say McBride's problems will come. The problems for Tyson, it seems, will be of a different sort. They will come only if the public declines to buy what he's selling.