SYDNEY, 7 November 2004 — Former heavyweight world champion Mike Tyson is being targeted for a fight in Australia, it was reported here yesterday.
Former multi-world champion Jeff Fenech, now a boxing trainer and promoter, said he would travel to the United States next week to try and lure the 38-year-old Tyson to Australia and a fight with New Zealand-born Kali Meehan.
“I think it would be a great venue for him,” Fenech told Channel Nine on Saturday. “I think Australians would flock to see a Tyson fight.”
Tyson has arthroscopic surgery last August to repair the knee injury he suffered in the first round of his loss to Danny Williams in Kentucky in late July.
England’s Williams shocked Tyson with a fourth-round knockout in Louisville in a non-title bout that also dealt a serious blow to Tyson’s boxing future.
Tyson was counted out at two minutes, 51 seconds of the fourth after Williams knocked him down with a barrage of shots to the body and head. Fenech said Tyson was keen to visit Australia 18 months ago but he ran into problems with authorities.
Meehan, who lives in Australia, is training for a Nov. 13 heavyweight fight with former WBC and International Boxing Federation world champion Hasim Rahman in New York.
Yoddamrong in WBA Title Fight
In Paris, Thailand’s Yoddamrong Sithyodthong challenges France’s Mahyar Monshipour for the World Boxing Association super bantamweight title tomorrow.
A former Thai kickboxer Yoddamrong takes to the ring at Bercy defending a career record 40 wins, one defeat and one draw, compared to the titleholder’s 25-2-2. Yoddamrong, who turned professional in 1996, is a former WBA champion at this weight, having taken the belt in February 2002, only to lose it to Japan’s Osamu Sato in Saitama three months later.
