Douglas/Tyson Re-Visited By ESPN

[Heim]

Seen the fight 4-5 times but completely forgot Douglas went down late & got up with a second to spare and moreover, what a huge reach advantage Buster had.

Another interesting pre- fight note:

"Five minutes before the start of the fight, Jose Sulaiman, WBC president, spoke to me," referee Octavio Meyran told Playboy's Eric Raskin. "... As we walked from the dressing rooms to the ring, Sulaiman took my shoulder and he told me, 'If you see Tyson hurt, be nice with him. If you see Douglas hurt, stop the fight immediately.' I said, 'I’ll never do that. I'm an honest man and I never do that.' Then he told me, 'OK, go out to the ring and do your job the best you can do.'"

 

[John Kelly]

I've got a VCR tape with a recording of the fight somewhere in a banker's box.

HBO televised.

The year was 1990.

 

[John Kelly]

It was Tyson's first loss after 37 victories.

Douglas's mother had died 23 days before the fight.

 

[ChiTownJoe]

I missed the fight live, probably because I thought it would be a 1 rd KO. Picked up the Sunday paper and there was a little one paragraph side story on pg 2 or 3 to beat a deadline....I thought for sure they got it wrong.

I watched the 30 for 30 and replay of fight, would have been interesting if it went to the judges as crooked as boxing is, and with huge payday with Holyfield up next....looked Tyson would have needed to win the last 3 rounds to win. Wonder if the judges scorecards were published for the first 9 rds?

 

[ChiTownJoe]

Looked it up,, Douglas would've been robbed if it went 12 rds. One judge had it a draw, one Tyson by 1 pt, and the other Douglas by 6 (which seemed the closest)

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Mike_Tyson_vs._James_(Buster)_Douglas

 

[Jammer]

Douglas seemed to be a better fighter than I thought he was, just lazy and un-focused 90 percent of the time. How about Tyson's corner man saying he didn't bother to bring the end swell, so he ended up blowing up a rubber glove and putting ice in it.

 

[Jammer]

I like how they screwed Don King and didn't use a boxing promoter for the Holyfield fight. He made 24 million, that's a lot of money in 1990. I wonder if he has any of that left?

 

[MrTop]

boxing needs another don king villain promoter or congress to take it over in the USA. Reduce the weight classes too.

 

[John Kelly]

Quick thought about boxing's 10-9 scoring system: Why not a bigger spread so more nuance can be added and fewer draws would be likely.

How about a 100-point scoring system where the closest rounds could be scored 100-99 and where a winning round might be scored 100-90 and a dominating round might be scored 100-80.

 

[E$]

I had forgotten his mom died a few weeks before the fight.

Probably from the stress of her son about to get in the ring with Mike Tyson. I don’t think people who are too young to remember that fight, can comprehend how scary he was.

 

[MrTop]

Michael sphinx was only worried under a minute.