He had fought two fights since his release, beating Peter McNeeley by disqualification in his pay-per-view return and knocking out Buster Mathis, Jr. in a nationally televised bout on Fox.

After the victory against Mathis, Tyson was placed ahead of Lewis in the line of contenders for the WBC title and his promoter Don King, who also promoted Oliver McCall, drew up a contract where McCall would defend his title against Bruno and the winner of the fight would be forced to defend the belt against Tyson in their first defense.

In the first title bout on the card IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins faced top ranked contender Joe Lipsey.

[2] Hopkins would dominate the bout, before stunning Lipsey with an undercut late in the fourth round, following up with a barrage of punches which send him down to the canvas and seemingly out cold.

Taylor beat the count but was unable to answer a string of Holmes' punches to his head prompting Richard Steele to wave it off.

Despite the bloody nose, Martin was still the aggressor, unleashing massive combinations in the fourth round, while Gogarty continued to fight back and kept her feet moving.

The sixth and final round continued similarly, with Martin throwing lefts and rights up until the bell, as the crowd cheered, and the on-air announcer praised both boxers' "brilliant" heart.

[8] On April 15 Martin became the first female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated;[9] the headline read, "The Lady Is a Champ".

In the final 30 seconds of the round, the two men would go toe-to-toe with Tyson connecting with a power right hand that staggered Bruno.

However, Tyson's contract stated that he would first have to defend the WBC Heavyweight title against number one contender Lennox Lewis.