Tyson in Training for Fight in July

Mike Tyson, the former world champion, is set to return to the ring in July and, with a new trainer in tow, believes he can exploit the current lack of credible contenders at the top of the heavyweight division.

It will be his first fight since a first-round knockout over Clifford Etienne in February 2003 and is likely to be against the American-based Irishman Kevin McBride. Tyson, 37, has agreed a contract with the Los Angeles trainer Freddie Roach and will prepare for the contest in Phoenix, Arizona.

Roach will join him on May 14, after he has completed work with the Filipino Manny Pacquiao, who is due to fight Raúl Márquez in a World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation world featherweight title fight on May 8.

Roach, 44, who recently received an award from the American Boxing Writers as their trainer of the year, said Tyson has been working on his fitness in the gym for several weeks, and added: "Mike called me up after he saw the fight for the WBO heavyweight title between Lamon Brewster and Vladimir Klitschko is Las Vegas [on April 10] and he said he believed he was capable of beating both those guys.

In fact, he said it a little more strongly than that. "I worked with Mike against Etienne, and I like him. I can work with him because I know that he respects me. And I know that the way the heavyweight division is right now Mike is perfectly capable of winning a world heavyweight title belt again, if he only stays in the gym for more than one fight at a time."

Tyson has squandered most of a fortune believed to have been worth $200m-$300m and which he earned from a professional boxing career that began in 1985. He has lost only four of his 56 fights; against Buster Douglas in 1990, two against Evander Holyfield, in 1996 and 1997, and most recently against Lennox Lewis in June 2002.

There had been widespread speculation that Tyson is about to sign a new deal with Don King, with whom Tyson fell out in acrimonious circumstances. Tyson had filed a claim against King for $100m (£56m) which he claims the promoter fraudulently took from his earnings during a previous agreement between the two men, but Roach says no contract has been signed.