"Iron" Mike Tyson vs. James "Buster" Douglas - 1987

What was said was that He didn't take the proper time to train accordingly...would be the point. He wasn't taking care of himself. He was an idiot.
One could also say (since it was said before), that it is what you are doing for the entire year before as well. You have to stay consistent in discipline in how you are living and preparing.


A while back, I used to have an article/interview with talk about how Tyson was getting beat up while in training prior to even leaving for Japan. I have a name in mind that I think I recall who said it, and it was a notable pro fighter, but I don't want to go all out and say something that specific without having the article at hand. Just in case I misquote or use the wrong name. But he pointed out how Tyson didn't look right, out of shape, and getting his ass kicked in sparring by basically everybody in camp.
I tried looking for that article for a while but...no luck. So maybe someone else read it as well and has it to post.

So, I'll try to go with info I think I can back up for sure.


Now I think in the book "The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight .. By Joe Layden...It was noted that Tyson didn't even want to go to Japan and they had a rough time getting him to go on the plane.

There are also stories of his party life-style carried over to Japan. That was talked about from a variety of sources.

Another thing with that book it talked about was when Tyson arrived in Japan, Buster's manager (I think it was), thought Tyson looked fat and unfit and he didn't think Tyson would be able to show up in shape for the fight. I think he even suggested testing Tyson for drugs because Tyson got down to 220 and he didn't think it was possible.

There was talk about how Tyson would balloon up in weight at that time after he left Rooney and got with King...who kept him inactive compared to Cayton's managing. Plus, life-style wise, Tyson was said to be out of hand.

With Rooney, the most he went up to was around 238 leading into the Spinks training camp. He was distracted by "outside" influences.
McCall said he knocked Tyson down. Now he did win that fight of course, but he also got his act together and had a better trainer to stay on him to make sure of it.

Have McCall's words right here:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=11465&more=1

I can probably find that S.I. article where it talks about Tyson preparing for Spinks and his weight...if you want.


The point with his weight and it was discussed when he hired a personal trainer post-prison, was that Tyson spent most of the time in camp (post-Rooney) trying to take off the weight instead of just preparing for the fight.

When Tyson was with Rooney, and Cayton managing him who kept him more active as a fighter, his weight couldn't go to high as to where it was unreasonable to lose weight gradually/naturally during the camp just through hard work where it wouldn't affect your focus on preparing for the fight where you need to spend your time honing your technical skills and working on strategy, etc.

When you have to much weight on your body and not enough time to train it off, you'll crash diet to take weight off. And when you do that, your body can also cause both your mind and body to crash. It's draining. You can't starve your body, especially while you are training. It's not healthy.
All while being unfit to train properly. Not a good thing in sparring.

Tyson's road-work wasn't said to be good either.


Here is a tid-bit from an article about the book:

Though the basic narrative of the Tokyo fight is familiar, Layden fills it in with fascinating and little-known detail, the product of interviews with fighters, trainers, the HBO commentators, and other boxing insiders. We learn that Tyson’s deservedly maligned cornermen—who lacked even rudimentary equipment to help their fighter on what became his most desperate night—were at least competent enough to worry about the champion’s lack of interest in the Douglas bout. Tyson’s lead trainer, Aaron Snowell, presciently told him that he was in real trouble if he didn’t start getting serious in training. Tyson shrugged and responded with an odd sentiment for an unbeaten and seemingly indestructible fighter: “If I get my butt whipped, I’ll take the blame.” Once in Tokyo, Snowell and others in the Tyson camp went out for some early morning roadwork—without Tyson himself!—and came upon a solitary runner up ahead: Douglas. “Let’s see what he’s got,” Snowell thought to himself, and he and his group picked up their pace, moving in on the challenger. Hearing their footsteps, and never once looking back, Douglas shifted into another gear and left the Tyson camp far behind. It was then that Snowell knew that Douglas was in superb condition, and his worries deepened.


http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0321pb.html

 

Exactly

 

Douglas was a good fighter, but he never showed the mental fortitude he did in the Tyson fight. Douglas had the type of inspiration that allowed him to overcome some of his mental shortcomings that night and he rose to the occasion.
Had there not been similar circumstances in both the Douglas and Tyson camps, I dont see how Douglas wins.
In fact had Douglas not been inspired by the death of his mother, I think he stays down in the 8th and gets counted out.

 

Caelum: First of all, I don't take the claims coming out of Tyson's own mouth too seriously. Obviously he'll say all that. All the other stuff is interesting and you might have a point in that respect. However, if anybody wants to claim that Tyson was substantially worse vs. Douglas than he was for some other fighter, I think it needs to be pointed out on film exactly how his performance differed. It's very easy to explain why something went wrong after it did by digging up all sorts of reasons. The true test is whether they really contributed or not.

How seriously do people take Thomas Hauser's claims that Pavlik was seriously ill before the Hopkins fight, despite supposedly having medical reports and such? Not very, because he didn't look much different in the ring. Similar standards apply here.

 

Douglas for me he was fighter who rose to the occasion, his mum died two weeks before the fight, Douglas was already in great shape and Tyson would have always looked on him as a bum and train accordingly even with Rooney.

 

It really wasnt the first time that Tyson had slacked off for a fight like this with his new team. The difference was Rooney was a control freak, he put a lot of restrictions on Tyson to keep him focused. Tyson had curfews and Rooney was always in his face.

That all went away when they parted ways and Tyson was less and less focused on boxing. Those close to Tyson knew the ass whooping was coming.

 

Tyson would've kayoed Buster in nine rounds.

 

The fight would be competitive, but I Think Tyson would get to him and knock him out. The Tyson that showed up in Tokyo was almost a shell of what he was in 87/88. His skills had gone down the toielt and he was nothing but a straightforward bomber at that point. Plus he wasn't in shape to fight a hard 12 round fight.

 

I think a motivated,focused and fit Tyson would have knocked Douglas out but Douglas' style would always have made it interesting.

 

1987 Tyson beats Douglas by KO in one of rounds 7-9, imo.

 

I think Kevin Rooney would have remembered to bring a ****ing compress.

Mike early KO

 

Yep, with a compress Tyson would have smoked Douglas........

 

A compress, a real training camp and a focused head he would have.

 

Another pair of arms and three chins might have done it as well.

 

There were newspaper reports leading up to the Tucker fight in 1987 that Tyson was skipping training camp to go out partying.
He was also reported at that time to be so stressed from the life of being a champion and a young celebrity that he'd developed a strange bald patch (although it could have been the steroids).

So, when a hypothetical Douglas beats him up in 1987, you've got pretty much the same load of ready-made excuses that he gets in 1990.