{"id":375634,"date":"2025-08-26T18:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375634\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:46:10","slug":"portland-state-is-byus-peter-mcneeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/375634\/","title":{"rendered":"Portland State is BYU\u2019s Peter McNeeley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gone in 89 seconds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Mike Tyson hammered Peter McNeeley in the first round of their Aug. 19, 1995, fight in Las Vegas. Three long months of exhaustive hype and buildup dissipated in a flash. Still relatively new to covering boxing, as a young sports reporter, I marveled at both the magnitude and triviality of the sold-out event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The mismatch was obvious, but over the months that followed, the purpose behind it became clear. Tyson had been out of boxing for four years. In his rusty return, he needed someone who was tougher than a sparring partner, but not so dangerous that he put at risk the larger fights that were up ahead.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/UHKGP77IT5E3JLPDLCGEIU5ZBI.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Special Collector&#8217;s Issue: &#8220;1984: The Year BYU was Second to None&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football&#8217;s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">To his credit, McNeeley, who earned $400,000, put up his dukes and came out swinging, but a straight right hand by Tyson, who made $25 million, sent him to the canvas 10 seconds into the fight. A minute later, an uppercut dropped him again. McNeeley\u2019s manager jumped into the ring to save his fighter from impending doom and triggered an automatic disqualification.<\/p>\n<p>Cougars on the air<\/p>\n<p><strong>Portland State (0-1) at BYU (0-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Saturday, 6 p.m. MDT<\/li>\n<li>At LaVell Edwards Stadium<\/li>\n<li>TV: ESPN+<\/li>\n<li>Radio: 102.7 FM\/1160 AM<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Fans were angered by Vinnie Vecchione\u2019s actions, but no one could truly dispute why he did it. For Tyson, McNeeley was just a paid punching bag to knock around so he could move on to something bigger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Portland State is BYU\u2019s Peter McNeeley. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Vikings (0-1) come to Provo for guaranteed money and a chance to throw a few haymakers in front of a national audience. Cougars coach Kalani Sitake won\u2019t look past anyone, but Portland State was signed to help BYU get ready for bigger things ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">When the contract was agreed to last September, Bear Bachmeier was a senior quarterback at Murrieta Valley High in California and committed to Stanford. After a flurry of unexpected changes, Bachmeier is set to become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/sports\/2025\/08\/25\/byu-football-bear-bachmeier-quarterback-qb-derby-starter-weekly-press-briefing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/sports\/2025\/08\/25\/byu-football-bear-bachmeier-quarterback-qb-derby-starter-weekly-press-briefing\/\">first true freshman<\/a> to start a season opener in the modern era of BYU football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Portland State is perfect for him \u2014 tougher than a sparring partner, but not so dangerous to threaten the bigger days ahead. The fresh combat will be priceless for the 6-foot-2, 220-pound newbie who earned his four-star recruiting status by throwing 59 touchdown passes and running for 33 over two seasons as a prep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN+) will be a game of firsts for Bachmeier in every way \u2014 his first collegiate snap, handoff, pass, audible, play clock, timeout, blitz, home crowd of 60,000+ \u2014 his first successes and mistakes. Each moment will be priceless for a kid who is surrounded by a team capable of contending again in the Big 12.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Bachmeier, 19, expedited his development over the summer and proved good enough to knock out two incumbents in fall camp and rise from the undercard to the main event. He has Portland State, Stanford, a bye week and road date at East Carolina to get ready for his first Big 12 \u2018mega-fight\u2019 at Colorado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Tyson\u2019s success (50-7-2, 44 knockouts) started with the simple things \u2014 footwork, balance and establishing his jab to set up bigger punches. Same goes for quarterbacks where the small and simple can lead to the big and great. Bachmeier is free to borrow from BYU basketball coach Kevin Young\u2019s mantra of \u201cstacking days\u201d by stacking plays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The youngest heavyweight champion in history also faced opponents that prepared him, little by little, for bigger fights ahead. The Cougars\u2019 schedule, with some foes more glamorous than others, is set up to do the same as they roll out the youngest opening day starter in program history. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Everybody needs a Peter McNeeley and thanks to Portland State, BYU and Bachmeier are getting theirs on Saturday. Not sure how it\u2019s going to go, but I\u2019m betting it will last longer than 89 seconds.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Peter McNeeley covers up as Mike Tyson leans toward him during first round of fight at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Saturday, Aug. 19, 1995. Fight was stopped in first round, with Tyson winning.\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50;background-color:#F3F1F0;cursor:pointer\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/USZGXKMS3ZDL3EQCQTZ4PO2UOI.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Peter McNeeley covers up as Mike Tyson leans toward him during first round of fight at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Saturday, Aug. 19, 1995. Fight was stopped in first round, with Tyson winning. | ASSOCIATED PRESS <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv\/ESPN+. He co-hosts \u201cY\u2019s Guys\u201d at ysguys.com and is the author of the children\u2019s book \u201cC is for Cougar,\u201d available at deseretbook.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gone in 89 seconds. Mike Tyson hammered Peter McNeeley in the first round of their Aug. 19, 1995,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,131231,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-375634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-news-feed-local","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115096557095738134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}