![]() Q: I’ll come to the Tyson fight a bit later if that’s okay, James! As talented and as gifted as you were, how did you lose to David Bey (TKO by 2) and get held to a draw by Steffen Tangstad, both in your early days as a pro? But Douglas, who exited with a 38-6-1(25) record in 1999, had a number of other interesting fights, not all of them wins, and here he recalls his career for Boxing News: “When I felt like I had a second chance,” Douglas said, “a light came on and I’ve been focused ever since.COLUMBUS, Ohio’s James “Buster” Douglas will always be remembered for one incredible fight/upset: the one that occurred the day he challenged the seemingly invincible Mike Tyson on February 11th 1990 in Tokyo, Japan.ĭouglas simply shocked the entire world with his tenth-round KO win and his name will forever live in the history books as a result. Still residing in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, Douglas was making the rounds of promotional appearances and coaching young boxers before the COVID-19 outbreak. “I went through a lot of things over many years before I finally got my feet back on the ground and got back into the game of life.” “It was pretty rough when it all came crashing down,” Douglas said. Holyfield knocked out Douglas in the third round, and when diabetic issues came upon him, Douglas didn’t fight again until 1996, cashing in on his one-night fame. ![]() When Izenberg saw Douglas undress for his weigh-in, he remarked, “That’s not Buster. Managerial business issues and his own past negligence to fitness left Douglas overweight for his first title defense against Evander Holyfield eight months later. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Douglas, who turned 60 on Tuesday, said, “Becoming a heavyweight champion against such a giant of a heavyweight champion, you know you have the skill set to overcome anything to accomplish any goal.” “Let’s go ahead and call it the biggest upset in the history of heavyweight boxing.” “Mike Tyson has been knocked out!” Lampley yelled. He took it lightly.”Ī punishing combination in the 10th sent Tyson to the canvas. “Tyson was once as unhittable as Ali was, but he didn’t train hard for Buster. He was knocking out so many guys with one punch that his head movement was different and he became much easier to hit,” Izenberg said. “Tyson was no longer the fighter that Cus (D’Amato) trained, or that (Kevin) Rooney or (Teddy) Atlas tried to train. He’d been let down by a couple of long-distance bouts in Japan and assessed Tyson-Douglas had the makings to be “the biggest farce of them all,” staying at home to watch on HBO. I don’t blame him, but he also had problems and, mentally, he was not into that fight.”Īnother veteran boxing scribe, Jerry Izenberg, had seen this story before when he trekked to Africa, Malaysia and the Philippines to watch Muhammad Ali fight. “Mike Tyson bought that he was a 42-to-1 favorite. “What we misjudged is not how much Buster got into this fight, but how much Tyson didn’t give a damn,” said Schuyler, a 2010 inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The fighter’s strain with promoter Don King was also festering, and reporters were surprised to hear sparring partner Greg Page had knocked down Tyson in training. ![]() The collision of Tyson, distracted and overconfident, and Douglas, possessing a burning (and fleeting) will to train for the fight of his life in the name of his mother, Lula Pearl Douglas, who died 23 days before the bout at age 46, set up “Buster” as boxing’s most lasting one-hit-wonder. “Iron Mike’s” desperate grip for both his slobbered mouthpiece and his invincibility became forever elusive inside the Tokyo Dome. Sure enough, Douglas amazingly captured all three heavyweight belts with a 10th-round knockout of Tyson. Revisiting the massive upset from 1990, Schulyer this week revealed the exchange was a myth - as untrue as it all seemed that night when I could only hear Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant speaking in impassioned tones from an HBO scrambled picture because my parents thought premium cable was an unnecessary luxury. ![]() Considering Schuyler’s job was to document the expected one-sided fight between the terrifying and unbeaten Tyson versus 42-to-1 underdog Douglas, the quick-witted Schuyler replied, “Oh, about 90 seconds.” ![]()
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