Still remember like it was yesterday. Can hear the guy on the radio saying, and boxing now and Mike tyson has lost his heavy weight titles to 40 to 1 under dog James buster Douglas!!!!!
And the pictures in the papers with tyson scrambling for his gum shield on the floor. What a spanner in the works for Don King. Would love to have been a fly on the wall in tyson s dressing room after the fight!!
How would things have shaped if Douglas had not gotten up in the 8th in time. Would tyson have been the same? How would it have affected the way people looked at him. The aura of invincibility would have gone to a big degree. Suddenly tyson could be hit and made to look ordinary
Well here's my take. You had a super talent who was only 23 years old, a huge crowd draw and seemingly with a long and brilliant career ahead of him lose to a veteran fringe contender who most viewed as joke, and ultimately derailed one of the most highly anticipated heavyweight fights of all time scheduled for june. Instead we got Holyfield vs a completely fattened up Douglas later in October... Yep, it was a bad night for boxing...
Okay, fair enough. It's perhaps not always convenient, but I love the idea that on any given night, something like this can happen. It's part of what makes boxing interesting. To me, it was a fascinating and affirming night. I thought it was great. Plus, I gotta root for the underdog.
I hear ya about rooting for the underdog. But seeing Mike Tyson beaten by Buster Douglas right before being scheduled to fight Holyfield was like watching a brand new Ferrari crashing into a fire hydrant on the way to the auto show.
Now see, I would actually laugh at something like that. Assuming of course, the driver is okay and all. Unless he's a d0uchebag, and the odds on that are probably pretty good.
If Mikey coulda kept it together, what an era it coulda been. Him, Holyfield, Bowe , Lewis, just a shame they didnt peak a little nearer one another. Having said that, the matches still had to be made. Doesn't mean the matches would've happened. The Lewis/Bowe fight never happened which was a travesty. As for Mike, nothing seemed the same after Tokyo.