Feb 11 2010
Tyson Vs. Douglas 20 Years Later
Jeremy Schaap put together an interesting article and complimentary video about the Mike Tyson vs. James “Buster” Douglas fight, which I remember seeing live.
In the 8th round, when Tyson finally put Douglas down, Tyson fans breathed a sigh of relief because we thought it was over. But when Buster got up, we all went, “Uh oh.” And when he took back control of the fight in the 9th round, we were mesmerized because we didn’t think Tyson was beatable. When Tyson failed to get up after getting knocked down in the 10th, it was like when I learned Santa Claus wasn’t real. All was not well in the world and I was in shock.
Schaap provides many myths about that fight and I agree with most of them. But here’s one I don’t agree with:
Myth No. 2: Tyson was out of shape
At the time, some experts thought Tyson had trained not too lightly but too hard. Watch the fight. Tyson’s muscles are bulging, and there is no fat anywhere on his frame. He weighed in at 220½ pounds — just 1¼ pounds more than he had weighed seven months earlier when he knocked out Carl Williams in 93 seconds and only two pounds more than he had weighed 20 months earlier when he had knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds. If Tyson had been in poor shape, he could not have lasted 10 rounds against an opponent who was pummeling him. Mentally, there’s no question Tyson was unprepared; it was inconceivable to him that Douglas might win. But that’s a different issue, and a champion must always expect an inspired challenger.
With what we know about weight cutting and training nowadays, it’s not at all hard to believe that he didn’t train well at all for this fight. Tyson was a genetic jackhammer. He was born with that genetic gift. It’s not inconceivable that with some hard training in a short period of time, he could “look” like Mike Tyson. But what about his sparring partners and what about his ring work? Just because a guy looks in tremendous shape, it doesn’t mean he’s in tremendous shape. Tyson was born to look like that.
If you want to read a great book about the fight, check out Joe Layden’s The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever. It almost reads as Buster’s biography, but there is enough about Tyson in there too.
Here’s the video to go with Schaap’s piece:
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When Dougles went down in the 8th round, the camera is on him, the man counting the knockdown and the ref. You can see the man having 4 fingers up when the ref is saying 3, therefore I believe Dougles got a long count and should have been counted out. Check it out urself GG and tell me what do u think.
I don’t think it really matters. Buster was going off the ref count so if the ref count was on point, I think Buster would’ve gotten up sooner.