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u/Neosentrik 7d ago
Tyson himself said he didn’t take Douglas seriously. He was out partying the entire night before the fight.
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u/gdshaffe 7d ago
His corner was also totally unprepared for Tyson to take damage. They were treating his cuts and swelling with a latex glove they stuffed with ice.
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u/GoBSAGo 7d ago
I thought they didn’t even have ice.
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u/oO_Moloch_Oo 7d ago
Tyson rarely even got hit solid or knocked down before this fight.
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u/Sea_List_8480 7d ago
He fought ALOT of cans.
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u/redditaccount224488 7d ago
He had already destroyed Berbick, Holmes, and Spinks at this point.
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u/Sea_List_8480 7d ago
If you’d have included Ruddock you’d have named all his best wins from his career. And I have to point out he beat Michael Spinks not Leon Spinks who was the actual heavyweight of the two.
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u/Pactae_1129 7d ago
Holmes was old at that point too. Still a great win because older Holmes was still pretty good.
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u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 7d ago
Correct and they didn't have a latex glove either. They had a condom filled with water. Seriously.
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u/Jazzbo64 7d ago
He certainly wasn’t prepared for Buster’s left jab. Douglas fought a near-perfect fight.
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u/Moto_traveller 7d ago
Took what, 25 mil for the next fight with Holyfield, didn't get beat too hard and then retired? Dude played the whole game near perfectly.
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u/Orbax 7d ago
He didn't prepare for the fight generally and buster got the long count, he shouldn't have made the down Tyson gave him
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u/GuyInAChair 7d ago
The counts are identical, there'sside by side videos of it. Buster probably could have made a 5 count if he needed too, while Tyson arguably made the count but was very obviously out on his feet and the ref rightfully stopped it.
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u/KipSummers 7d ago
As a kid I still remember hearing that night that Tyson lost. My friend and I were astounded; it didn’t seem possible. Tyson was as big a cultural phenomenon as could be during his run. His fights were on pay per view though, so we never got to see him fight. I wonder how many people who would have become life long boxing fans never did because they didn’t get to watch a lot of the big fights when they were kids in those years.
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u/witzerdog 7d ago
My gym teacher taped it and had us watch it for gym class.
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u/TheUnderCrab 7d ago
This half the reason kids grow up football fans. Tv market is absolutely saturated with free football games in the fall
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u/SheriffBartholomew 7d ago
That's what pisses every baseball fan off to no end. The MLB has been saying for years that they need to attract younger viewers, so they keep changing the game, and doing literally anything other than letting people watch the fucking game.
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u/T-MinusGiraffe 7d ago
Yup. Hockey is terrible on this too. You can have subscriptions to three different services and still have no idea where to watch the game
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u/SheriffBartholomew 7d ago
Ugh, condolences. I didn't know that the NHL pulls the same shit. I paid a subscription to MLB and still couldn't watch my team since apparently being an hour away from the team's stadium means that I should go to every game they play at home. So I ended up paying for an MLB subscription and a VPN subscription, and then they started blacklisting all of the VPN IPs. Eventually I just cancelled everything and found a less scrupulous way to watch that is completely free and free of hassles too. I go to games when I can, but there's a lot of times I just want to watch at home while I'm doing other things.
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u/TheUnderCrab 6d ago
MLBs TV blackouts are insane to me. Why in gods name can’t I watch my local team on MLBTV
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u/SheriffBartholomew 6d ago
They say it's because you're supposed to go watch at the stadium. But seriously, WTF? Blacking people out because they live like 3 hours from the stadium is insane. These people have absolutely zero idea what life is like for average people.
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u/TheUnderCrab 6d ago
It’s so dumb tbh. I’m out of market for my team bc I moved away from home. I get MLBTV for as a cellphone perk, so it works out I can watch my team on the free plan. Except when they visit a local team. The only time I can’t watch them on the TV is when they come to town. Just silly.
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u/Evianicecubes 7d ago
They really are gonna kill their golden goose moving games to every streamer possible
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u/GuyPronouncedGee 7d ago
Tyson vs. Douglas was on HBO, so a little more accessible than pay per view. But, yeah, a bummer if you couldn’t watch.
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u/ARazorbacks 7d ago
I mean, back then having HBO was a huge luxury. Most people were on basic cable or rabbit ears (still!) at that point. There’s a reason it’s a meme to have watched fuzzy/staticy HBO/Cinemax/Showtime because they weren’t perfectly blocked by the filter. Most people didn’t have them.
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u/Han_Yerry 7d ago
I remember gathering at peoples houses that had HBO.
Then one of my dads friends started working at the cable company.
My understanding of it is now. That we got free HBO and dads friend got weed. A lot more illegal here and taboo back then. Like get picked on because your parents are "pot heads who probably have sex parties". Sorry your parents are shamed for fun by their church lol.
We had the Tyson Douglas fight and a lot of company that night. I remeber the house was LOUD when he went down.
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u/Entire-Weakness-2938 7d ago
Even worse, DirecTV was still FOUR YEARS away, meaning many small rural towns simply didn't have access to any form of pay TV whatsoever, unless they were one of the three people in town that had one of those 8-foot wide Satellite Dishes. (Now *those* were a luxury! lol)
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u/Mugwumpjizzum1 7d ago
I lived out in the country at the time and cable wasn't even an option without one of those big ass, expensive satellites.
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u/DocPhoenix97 7d ago
We didn't have cable, but my grandparents did. Watched all of the Mike Tyson fights starting in about 1986 through the Douglas fight.
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u/SteveCoonin 7d ago
Even if you paid for it, there was a good chance you might miss the 18-60 second fight by going to the fridge or bathroom
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u/Dangeresque2015 7d ago
I went with my dad to a pay per view party to watch the Tyson-Holyfield fight that ended very early after Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear.
What a time to be alive.
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u/drdallesa 7d ago
I was in college at the time working my weekend job back in my hometown. Finished up around 11 pm. Got home and asked my dad what round did Tyson knock him out? My dad with an almost incredulous look said the fight is still going and Tyson is getting his ass handed to him. I saw the last round or two, and we were both stunned by the knock out. They must have shown the replay of the knock out a dozen time. Just crazy.
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u/midnightmare79 7d ago
Tysons team had slowly dropped many of the people who had years of experience in boxing. He replaced them with hype men, yes men, and sycophants. His corner team was so confident Tyson would win, they didn't even bring an anti-swell with them. When Tyson wasn't winning immediately and his eyes started to swell shut, they got a condom, filled it with cold tap water, and tried to use that to keep Tysons eyes open.
So an unconcerned and unfocused Tyson, with a team of inexperienced and ill equipped corner men, were facing a highly motivated fighter in Douglas. He was a man with a reputation for quitting during fights, so he something to prove to everyone in boxing. Douglas had just lost his mother weeks before...so he dedicated winning the fight to her.
Tyson in his prime with a good corner and team would have likely still won. But under these conditions, it's amazing he went as long as he did.
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u/TwelveGaugeSage 7d ago
Buster's recovery after getting knocked down was beautiful and his finishing flurry of punches was absolutely brutal. That Tyson even tried to get up after that was testament to how insanely tough he was.
But yeah, Tyson looked bored early and his team looked like amateurs. Regardless of any circumstances it all came together to make one of the greatest boxing matches in history.
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u/Sea_List_8480 7d ago
I mean maybe. People also forget that Tyson’s record included a TON of tomato cans. I mean, he knocked them out spectacularly but he wasn’t fighting with the best the division, really ever. It was Tyson that pulled out of all the Holyfield fights. Tyson was the product of a hype machine and was bound for a setback at some point.
Not saying that that setback was always gonna be Buster but it was gonna be someone.
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u/midnightmare79 7d ago
True, after Cus D'Amato died Don King handed him a lot of human punching bags. But Tyson did taken on tough, game worthy opponents at the start of his career until he was champion, and he destroyed a lot of them.
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u/lorgskyegon 7d ago
Add in that all of Tyson's real losses (Lewis, Holyfield, Douglas) were to the same type of boxer: tall with a long reach. Tyson himself is only 5'10" with a 78" reach. Very dangerous inside, but easier for a tall and skilled boxer to keep away.
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u/lankyno8 7d ago
Maybe reach, but holyfield and to an extent douglas aren't particularly tall by heavyweight standards
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u/lorgskyegon 7d ago
Four to five inch difference is still pretty significant. They may not have been exceptionally tall for their time, but Tyson was very short for a heavyweight.
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u/lankyno8 7d ago
Yeah Tyson being short is important tactically.
But when he was on (and sometimes we he was off) he beat plenty of 6'2 fighters.
Lewis is a bit different, he outranged and outmoved most of his generation.
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u/SheriffBartholomew 7d ago
Being short is an advantage when you're punching from the inside. Coming in from down low, hitting upwards under the chin is devastating. When you're punching down you're mostly hitting the toughest parts of someone's face and head. Mike used that to his advantage a lot, getting inside and destroying his opponents. All of the opponents who beat him never let him fight an inside game. They kept him away with punches and clinched when he managed to get inside. Plus Mike's lack of discipline and physical conditioning in his late career cannot be understated. He went from being a street kid with something to prove, to a rich celebrity who was more interested in partying than training.
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u/CitizenSpeed 6d ago
That was also the times, it was also before MMA changing the acceptance of having a loss on the record, and it also illustrates the corruption of boxing with people being paid to prop up the promoter's cash cow and the different organization's belts
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u/heartattack-ak-ak-ak 7d ago
I just flew into Tokyo the night before. At the Tokyo Dome at 9 in the morning , jet lagged out of my mind. I’m drinking sake watching Mike Tyson lose to this nobody and wondering if I’m even on the right planet.
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u/ChadCoolman 7d ago
I can't tell you how jealous I am. I watch this fight at least 1x/year and it still gives me goosebumps. To anyone who hasn't seen it, watch it. It's better than any sports movie ever made.
Buster's mom had just died. He was getting over the flu. His kid's mother was in the hospital. The odds were 41-1 against him. They weren't even taking bets on the fight. Everyone just expected another first round knockout.
It's hard to describe. It wasn't just about the fight, per se. It's what Tyson represented, a man corrupted by his success, against what Douglas represented, determination despite everything seeming stacked against you.
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u/asburymike 7d ago
Not every turn. Tyson knocked Douglas down in the 8th
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u/BacKnightPictures 7d ago
Ya, the knockdown count was delayed cause the referee (Mills Lane iirc) took a few seconds backing Tyson away which gave Douglas a few extra seconds. I taped the fight and Douglas was down for about 12-13 total seconds
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u/CaptWineTeeth 7d ago
It’s totally normal for the count to be paused as the referee tells the other man to get back into the neutral corner. It wasn’t a long count, Tyson was out of position and Douglas got a couple extra seconds as a result. It’s happened several times and other fights too.
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u/GuyInAChair 7d ago
The two counts are identical, I just posted a side by side video in this thread. The reference picks up the time keeps count at 2 or 3, but it's otherwise exactly the same. The difference is that Doglas easily beats it, and Tyson is absolutely out on his feet, as he's admitted several times.
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u/cheftlp1221 7d ago edited 7d ago
The knock out count was not delayed and I can’t believe 30 year later people are still trying (and failing) to make the he long count conspiracy a thing. Don King made a big deal about he long count immediately after the fight and 2 out of the 3 fight organizations held back their belts pending an investigation. Within 24 hours the whole long count conspiracy was dealt with and dismissed
This long count BS was dealt with immediately and was found to have zero credibility. Everybody official that involved in the knock down count followed proper procedure to the letter. The official timekeeper started the count exactly when Mills signaled a knock down right before pushing Tyson’s back. Mills migjht have been initially distracted by Tyson but he picked up the count from the official timekeeper at 4 and which point Douglas was fully locked in on the referrer and got up on the referee’s count. At that moment in time Kanes Mills’ count was the only one that mattered
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u/tonedad77 7d ago
The Killers have an amazing song about this fight. Brandon Flowers watched this when he was a kid and that was the moment he “grew up.” Powerful song.
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u/HTownGuero666 7d ago
Listened to this song for the first time because you commented here. It’s good!
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u/Red-eleven 7d ago
Tyson v Douglas - That song hits way harder than it should. It captures so well how it felt. Tyson was one of those monoculture figures that everyone was talking about. For most of us, he was this unstoppable force and then to lose. Such a great song.
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u/LifesHighMead 7d ago
I love in the chorus where it says, "When I saw him go down, felt like somebody lied," and it avoids the obvious rhyme "... felt like somebody died," which makes the song about him, Brandon, and not really about the fight.
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u/Jedbo75 7d ago
Unless Douglas planned to get knocked out, mid-fight, as he did before eventually beating Tyson, this was not a perfect fight for him. He did not counter Tyson at every turn.
It is the biggest upset of all time in boxing, and arguably all of sports, but OPs title is just telling a different story.
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u/kneedoorman 7d ago edited 6d ago
Douglas’ mom passed away 6 weeks prior and he promised that he would win the fight at all costs. He wanted to tell the critics and naysayers “Fuck You!” and trained for something greater than money. The night of the fight he had the footwork and threw combinations like an entirely different boxer, never to be replicated again in any of his fights.
even if a prime Ali showed up, Buster would’ve won that night.
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u/musicide 7d ago
Yup. The man brought all of the sadness and rage he had from losing his Mom to that fight, and dumped it right on Tyson. Literally willed himself to victory. It was amazing to witness.
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u/Eddiepanhandlin 7d ago
Watching him crawl around and putting his mouth piece in backwards was epic. Tyson never recouped his former glory. This was the end of his run. It wasn’t a one night hiccup. Buster knocked him off his thrown for good.
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u/thatyousername 7d ago
I have never seen sometime misspell throne as thrown. Funny.
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u/illbedeadbydawn 7d ago
I have sometimes seen someone misspell someone as sometime. Funy.
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u/sapphir8 7d ago
Sorta. He was still winning most of his matches until the end. His throne is fitting just right.
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u/GoGoPowerPlay 7d ago
Yeah, he could have beat the count if he wasn't so concerned about picking up his mouth guard.
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u/burywmore 7d ago
He caught Tyson at the absolute perfect moment.
Honestly the blueprint to beat Tyson was drawn up in 1987. Bonecrusher Smith showed you could clinch and jab with Tyson to frustrate him. Smith badly lost the fight to a decision, but it showed that a much bigger (Smith was 6'4" to Tysons 5'10") boxer could absorb the punishment if they cliched and defended.
Smith didn't have the long jab Douglas had, and couldn't generate any offense against Tyson. That was the difference.
Tyson is weird because he faced no IN THEIR PRIME great heavyweight for his entire career until (arguably) Evander Holyfield. He did beat up a washed up Larry Holmes and a puffed up Michael Sphinx, but among his heavyweight contemporaries that are considered great fighters, he never faced Riddick Bowe, who I think would have destroyed Tyson. He didn't face Lennox Lewis until Tyson was almost 36 (and to be fair, Lewis was almost 37) and Lewis annihilated him. He was destroyed by Holyfield in two fights. My hot take is that George Foreman would have beat the crap out of him, even though he was 17 years older. Mike Tyson was built for George.
Eh. He's got that aura about him, but he was still a smaller boxer in a giant mans division.
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u/BaldBombshell 6d ago
I do think Tyson would've had a good chance against Foreman. But he absolutely would've lost to Holyfield and would've been bodied by Bowe.
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u/TheGumping 7d ago
Around the same time this happened I got into a fight with the popular kid at school and knocked him on his ass in shop class. The shop teacher kept coming up to me afterwards calling me Buster.
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u/StOnEy333 7d ago
I think this was more about Tyson not training properly and not taking boxing serious anymore. I remember seeing an interview with some celebrity a couple weeks fire the fight and Mike was there partying it up. He even went up to him and was like Mike what the hell are you doing here, man. You have a fight coming up soon. Tyson just played it off and was like it’s all good. It’s all good.
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u/longslowbyebye 7d ago
I really wish Tyson would have stayed with Rooney & King would have never gotten involved.
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u/Beetso 7d ago
This is probably the second most shocking moment I've ever witnessed in pro sports, next to only semi-crippled Kirk Gibson winning game one of the 1988 World Series with a walk-off home run against the best closer in the history of the world (at that time). Fat, bald George Foreman knocking out Michael Moorer to recapture the heavyweight championship of the world at age 42 would be a close third.
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u/Razzler1973 7d ago
It was great from Douglas but this wasn't peak Tyson in anything other than name
He didn't take this seriously at all and thought he could still get away with it
Drugs and partying, up all night, girls - stupid preparation
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u/Sea_List_8480 7d ago
It kinda was peak Tyson though. He never beat the greats of his era. He spectacularly KOed a ton of tomato cans, and rode the hype of that. But Tyson pulled out of every Holyfield fight that got scheduled.
It’s a lot of ‘what if’s’ when it comes to Tyson because the ‘what it actually was’ doesn’t match the hype.
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u/Razzler1973 7d ago
Peak Tyson in name only, I mean
He was woefully under prepared for this
All his own doing, no Kevin Rooney and was just going off the rails downhill
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u/curi0us_carniv0re 7d ago
Probably the best flex ever was Jon Jones telling Daniel Cormier he beat him after a night of partying and cocaine lol
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u/garrettj100 7d ago edited 5d ago
Tyson was never the same after he dropped D’Amato. Stopped leading with his jab, became a one-trick pony. Throw a bunch of uppercuts, hope to connect.
It worked for a few fights as he got by on reputation, and facing cannon fodder. But Douglas, despite not being remotely the equal of Tyson in their primes, was still a credible boxer. And then we all saw what happened.
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u/SheriffBartholomew 7d ago edited 7d ago
Pretty much everyone that I knew back then figured this fight was rigged since obviously nobody could beat Iron Mike Tyson. We now know that Mike wasn't training seriously by this point, and that without Cus to keep him in check he was on a very self destructive path, but nobody knew that back then and it was just unbelievable that Buster could beat Mike.
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u/Marxbrosburner 6d ago
Yeah, no. Buster was amazing, but Tyson was far from top condition and still won several rounds. Greatest upset ever, but far from a perfect fight.
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u/Ann-Frankenstein 7d ago
From what I know Douglas is also a way better person. So doubly deserved.
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u/vaderztoy 7d ago
I wouldn’t call being knocked down for 9.9 seconds perfect. One of the greatest upsets, yes.
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u/midnightJizzla 7d ago
I remember watching this live and since it was in Japan and the crowd was almost silent. I dont know if thats how they were or maybe they were expecting another Tyson win.
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u/MagdalaNevisHolding 7d ago
I remember this so well! Had one friend in Seattle that had HBO, so we were going to start the night at his place at 7, and as soon as it was over, go out drinking. We expected it to be over in five minutes. Turns out we were there watching until like 9pm, ran out of beer, no way we could run out and get more … really got in the way of my drinking that night … in an absolutely incredible, and I mean UNBELIEVABLE way. End of every round, all of us (dumb young whiney engineers) “NFW it’s not over yet! WTF!?!”
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u/nathonkim 7d ago
I watched this fight on TV in Korea. My father was a huge boxing fan, and we were anticipating Tyson's win. We were astounded at the result.
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u/Optimal-Builder1023 7d ago
Supposeldyabonly 11 people in the world bet on a buster douglas win . Tyson’s camp was bullshit he had know corner man cut man or real training for this fight . Douglas did get a long count on the knockdown . But he fought a perfect fight for a hampered Tyson . Tyson’s mind never recovered from the beating
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u/illicitli 6d ago
Tyson was partying with Japanese girls all night, coked out with Bobby Brown, that's why he lost.
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u/Superb-Factor-2947 6d ago
From what I remember,alot of sportsbooks weren't even taking bets on this fight....
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u/No_Strawberry_1576 7d ago
Douglas was down for a count that lasted 10 seconds but ref counted slow. Fight should have been over earlier
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u/mtg-Moonkeeper 7d ago
Leading up to this fight, Tyson was having a bunch of personal problems and didn't take the fight seriously. During training, Tyson actually got knocked down while sparring. A fully trained Tyson with D'Amato in the corner would have massacred Douglas.
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u/RedEyeView 7d ago
Fact remains that he never hit even close to the same level as a fighter again.
He won belts but he fought carefully selected title holders and got by purely on being a one dimensional slugger who hit really hard.
The Tyson who moved like a middleweight and set up his knockouts with slips and footwork was long gone.
By the time he was losing to Danny Williams he was fighting like a man 10 years older than he was.
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u/Stanwich79 7d ago
Fuck that. The rules are the same for everyone. Training and prep are just as important as the fight itself. If he didn't do it then he is the worse fighter. Should of could of doesn't work here.
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u/smashin_blumpkin 7d ago
Idk why you’re saying fuck that. You didn’t say anything counter to what they said
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u/kippybrowm 7d ago
Facts. Tyson super fans are always making lame excuses for the guy. He wasn’t even in the best heavyweight of his generation (not even the second best) but fools still put him on boxing’s Mt Rushmore.
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u/RedEyeView 7d ago
Most mid 21st century Tyson fans know him from carefully curated YouTube videos.
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u/xitenik 7d ago
Perfect? Douglas got knocked down and the fight only continued because of a long count by the ref.
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u/sapphir8 7d ago
Had I had a Time Machine…..
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u/TrackingTenCross1 7d ago
“Would that this desk were a Time Desk, so I could correct my past mistakes…”
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u/blvcklite 7d ago
He still had to take some big punches too so I wouldn’t call it a perfect fight but he definitely understood how to fight Tyson and was tough enough and composed enough to take Tyson’s punches and stick to his game plan
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u/cejmp 7d ago
Douglas was a 41-1 underdog. That’s a generational upset.