Electronic Arts has announced the next round in the popular boxing series Fight Night is in development at EA Canada in Vancouver with an expected bout date of sometime in 2009.

We were a little worried the Fight Series had been shelved after EA announced Facebreaker, a cartoon-styled boxing game slated for released under their new casual games label. With confirmation of Fight Night Round 4, those fears have finally been laid to rest.

To take Fight Night Round 4 to another level of realism, EA has rebuilt the physics-based animation system from scratch to better capture real-life blows, dodges and boxing action. The new system will allow inside and up-close fighting for the first time in the series.

For some fans, the big news will be the appearance of (once) Iron Mike Tyson in all his youthful glory. We doubt he'll be able to bite off Muhammad Ali's ear, but it'll be fun to take control of Mike for the first time in over 10 years.

Fight Night Round 4 will be released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Wii owners will have to get their fill of boxing from Facebreaker.