And is there evidence. Holyfield said after the fight that he fought Buster could beat him. But its one thing saying after the fight
Everyone's heard of "some guy" that bet the farm on Douglas and bought a mansion. In hindsight, a rapidly destructing disinterested untrained heavyweight lost a fight to a large, well schooled, highly motivated one. And that isn't anything noteworthy, if you think about it. But you'd never be thinking that before the fight. Never
I thought there was no chance after seeing him quit with Tucker. I still think he was not a great fighter or even very good. He had potential obviously, but he won more from Mike not fighting well that night rather than he being good.
teddy atlas after fight and emmuanel stewart after fight "this fight went exactly as i taught it would!"
Buster favoured himself: Also, Aaron Snowell was quite worried for Tyson, who was clearly underestimating the challenger: Source: http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0321pb.html
Great book :good I wanted to hear more about Snowell's worries of Douglas but he had to keep quiet for some reason or other. I'm guessing he didn't want to throw anyone under the bus.
I saw Buster fight on the undercard of Tyson-Spinks. When the Tyson-Douglas fight was announced, I thought Buster would be bringing the best jab Tyson had faced (yes, Holmes in his prime had a better jab, or at least as good, but not the Holmes that fought Tyson). I thought he might give Tyson a bit of trouble ... but I also thought Tyson would whack him out somewhere in the middle rounds after Buster began to lose a little steam. So I won't even go as far as to say I thought Buster could beat Tyson, but I didn't think he was going to be a complete walkover.
Anyone can beat anyone if one guy is in shape and motivated and the other is disinterested, lackadaisical, and not in proper condition. Tyson didn't take his preparation seriously. But how could anyone really know that for sure unless they had seen him in training? There was no reason to think Tyson wouldn't KO Douglas. Only tip off was the fact that Greg Page, who isn't exactly known for being a puncher, decked Tyson.
I never heard the running story. I think mostly Snowell is covering his tracks. Too me it's a bit of revisionism. I don't really think he was too worried. Not having the proper equipment seems to be an indicator that Tyson and his camp expected an early KO. If not that Snowell must've been incredibly incompetent, and not just unprepared. I know a fighter that had Snowell as his assistant, I should ask him about the guy and if he talked about Tyson and his preparation for Douglas with him.
Plenty of "I told you so" after the fight but the outcome was truly shocking. In hindsight people did begin to reappraise Buster and realised that he actually was a terrific boxer; good hand speed, foot work and a fabulous jab but just didn't seem to believe in himself. You also have to accept that Tyson was nowhere near as good as the hype that surrounded him and we all accept that now but at the time he seemed invincible.
I didn't believe that Douglas had a chance until they showed some video of him doing prepatory roadwork at 5:00 AM with icicles hanging off of his nose and mouth. That really made me think twice.
Well i have the actual Aaron Snowell on facebook, & i did get him to reply regarding the Spoon-Holmes fight. I really want to ask him a lot of questions about training & preparation of his fighter in Tokyo, but i'm very unsure he'd have the time to give me a decent sized response. Anyway what do you think of this... Dated from before the fight, there's no chance of "covering tracks" here: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...01203499_1_tyson-soup-and-salad-days-in-tokyo Another instance of Tyson lacking the proper equipment: Tyson didn't even have a Willie to practice his D'Amato number combinations, from when he left Rooney... so they actually had to get one after the shocking upset! It's no surprise though, since Snowell or Bright weren't giving Tyson D'Amato combination numbers in his corner, against Bruno or Buster. :-( http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-03-13/sports/9003133008_1_tyson-punch-bright