MIKE Tyson was impassive and silent yesterday as he weighed in for his first fight in more than four years, and his first fight since serving a three-year prison sentence for rape.
Tyson weighed 220 pounds for the scheduled 10-round bout against Peter McNeeley - his heaviest fighting weight since he lost the undisputed world heavyweight title to James 'Buster' Douglas in Tokyo in 1990. Tyson weighed 220.5 pounds for that bout.
He weighed 221 pounds in 1986 when he beat Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council title to become the youngest world heavyweight champion in history. He was also 221 when he beat Tony Tucker to unify the title on August 1, 1987.
Despite the heavier weight, Tyson looked lean. His strength and conditioning coach, Carlos Blackwell, said the 29-year-old fighter's heavier weight was due to increased muscle mass and a lower body fat percentage.
Blackwell has been working with Tyson since May, and has the fighter on a nutritional programme designed to eventually lower his body fat to about seven per cent.
McNeeley, the 26-year-old from a Boston suburb who did not start fighting professionally until August, 1991, weighed in at 224 pounds.
McNeeley flexed his biceps and roared for the crowd of a couple of thousand at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where the fight is scheduled for tomorrow morning (9 am Hong Kong time).