Douglas was considered a talent well before the Tyson fight. The reason why Douglas was a 42-1 underdog wasn't because he wasn't good- it was because he lacked the determination. He was putting up a good fight vs Tony Tucker before losing. Douglas was 6'4 230 lbs with incredible movement and combination punching ability as well as above average power and a great jab. He was never going to be ATG, however. Why? Because while he had the physical tools, he did not want to be a fighter. His father pushed him into fighting. You cannot be an ATG unless you want to be one. Tokyo Douglas put it together for 1 night due to his mother's tragic passing. But he lacked the desire to be an ATG. If he had the desire, then he would be a big threat to Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe etc.
"Douglas won every match Don King wanted him to win and lost every match Don King wanted him to lose" is my favourite pre-Tokyo quote on Douglas. Seems right to me. Perfect storm stuff. The thing with his mother really was the main bit. He would never have been special but he was a perfectly tuned to beat Mike.
Perhaps if his dad did not push him into boxing, he would have been special. He had the physical tools to be special. If he had discovered boxing on his own, he may have loved the sport and gone on to be great. But kids who are pressured into sports often dislike that particular sport. I think that was the case with Douglas.
If Buster had the mentality, passion and dedication of his dad, you're looking at what I firmly believe would have become an ATG. Just compare that verison of him to Tokyo Douglas. Even when he wasn't at his absolute best, he still proved he was far and away better than the likes of Page and Berbick. In the mid-late 80s, imagine him vs Weaver, Williams, Dokes, Coetzee, Witherspoon, Pinky, Smith, Bruno, Spinks, Tubbs, Biggs, Rudduck and again vs Ferguson and Tucker, without wanting to quit. I can't see him losing to most of those. I'd certainly pick him over most. Only Pinky, Witherspoon and Spinks have a chances IMO, and I'd pick him over all three. Then in the 90s, he's in with the likes of Lewis, Holyfield, Bowe, Tyson (rematch) Foreman, Old Holmes, Mercer, Morrison and the rest. I only see him losing two or three. Obviously if that's if we give him the mental strength of a Hopkins, a Mayweather, or a Billy Douglas to maintain his peak form. Personally, I don't think ANY HW could run that guantlet without dropping a loss here and there, but I my point is that I think he's above the Non-ATGs of the era, and would beat them all if he was at his peak. And I think the form he showed vs Page, Berbick, McCall, Williams even and Tucker show it wasn't some dumb fluke.
Douglas was very good but Tyson was a certain type and style of fighter. A stocky 5'10, short armed fighter who comes forward throwing big punches. Douglas only proved he could beat that particular fighter, and there aren't many similar or comparable ATGs of that style, so it makes no sense to say how Douglas could have done against other ATGs.
Well, he might’ve beaten Marciano and Dempsey, who weren’t really any better than Tokyo Tyson. He’d have a chance against Patterson too.
Complete crap. Tyson was a very skilled boxer and not bull type moron as you describe him. He only became a head hunter in the 90s. Douglas would have done just fine, he was a brilliant boxer.
Tokyo Douglas is one of the cases that proves that fighting is 90% mental. If he'd had that kill-or-be-killed attitude throughout his career he probably would have been an ATG. Instead he got it together for one night and showed us what might have been. This is not uncommon in fighting sports. Tyson himself showed a slide from his devastating tuned form into a somewhat above average slugger type when he lost his passion for the sport. My favourite example of this comes from outside boxing. Fedor Emelianenko was a pudgy, not especially big or scary guy that was endowed, probably due to the near-starvation times he'd endured, with an inside flame that made him virtually unbeatable at his best. Take that flame and put it into your Buster Douglases ... and stand back.
Magnificent post.one of the finest ive ever read.spot on. Imagine a douglas with holyfields attitude. Douglas had some of the fastest most purposeful footwork ive ever seen in a boxer in tokyo. There was none of the generic showboat Ali style footwork...just very fast reactive footwork....tysons fast charges met with no success