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A true veteran of the game,
McKart made his professional
debut in 1992 and won the
Michigan State and WBC
International light middleweight
titles on his way to his first
shot at a world championship in
1996 where he stopped Santos
Cardona from Puerto Rico to lift
the WBO crown.
McKart lost the WBO title to
future Hall-Of-Famer Winky
Wright, but it was a close call
and Wright only narrowly escaped
with a split decision. After
four consecutive victories
McKart found himself in position
to win his second world title
the following year, and once
again he succeeded when he
clearly outpointed Eric Holland
to win the IBA title.
He successfully defended the IBA
belt against Ronald Weaver, and
in 2000 he finally secured a
long-awaited rematch with
Wright, who this time won an
uncontroversial unanimous
decision. The pair would fight a
third and final time two years
later, this time for the IBF
World title that Wright had won
after surprisingly loosing the
WBO version to Harry Simon in
South Africa. Wright won again
when McKart was disqualified for
excessive low blows.
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In 2004 McKart challenged for
the WBA world championship at
“The Mecca of Boxing”, Madison
Square Garden in New York, but
came up short and lost a
decision to undefeated champion
Travis Simms. After that fight,
McKart decided to move up to
middleweight in search for his
third world title. After twelve
years and twelve title bouts at
154 Lbs., six of those for world
championships, victories over
top class names such as Aaron
Davis, Santos Cardona, Glenwood
Brown, Ronald Weaver, Jason
Papillion, Michael Lerma and
Alex Bunema, it was time to look
for new challenges at a higher
weight.
Despite mixed results, McKart
has established that he can
compete at world class level at
160 Lbs. A victory over Enrique
Ornelas, where he captured the
NABF championship, a draw with
fellow former world champion
Raul Marquez and competitive
defeats against Kelly Pavlik and
Roman Karmazin are testaments to
this fact. This past February,
McKart won an Inter-Continental
title by outclassing tough
Columbian Jose Berrio, and he is
now ready to fight for the UBO
world title in his quest to
become a three time,
two-division world champion on
September 18. |
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