Mike Tyson reflects on his loss to Buster Douglas

Not at all.

On the surface, it was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did he lose his crown & aura with it, but he was thoroughly & convincingly defeated, & by a very lightly-regarded foe. This was not Ali beating Foreman, Douglas had done nothing sans an occasional showing of talent, which had always gone unfulfilled.

Looking deeper, does it get better? It gets worse. Douglas never did anything again, further confirming the belt was lost to a born loser. Tyson himself did not return as though he’d had the kick up the ass he needed as a fighter, he regressed as a Boxer, lost out on future title fights, had his reign drastically shortened, never regained the crown, & never found even so much as cursory redemption in a rematch with Douglas.

In every context - money, legacy, record, present & future image, personal mindset as a professional - Tyson lost. He even came out of the aftermath in second place when King’s sore loser campaign about the count reflected poorly on him, rightly or wrongly.

If someone sees a silver lining, I’m very interested to learn.

 

Contenders beat Champions sometimes it’s the natural order if he’d learned from it he’d have been better but he didn’t in my opinion.

 

I completely disagree with this one hundred percent.
If we had fights Mike Tyson (before Douglas) Vs. Mike Tyson (after Douglas). Before Tokyo Tyson would win after Tokyo Tyson.

 

He did regain two parts of it..

 

I don’t recognise anything but lineage, personally.

 

I like your sentiment but lineage was broken with Gene Tunney at Heavyweight.

If Harry Greb had stepped up in weight and then lost to MaxSchmeling for the title, there would be some feeling that lineage continued...

 

My enduring memory from Tokyo is Don King's smear campaign around the "13 seconds count", with Tyson willingly going along with it.

Pathetic.
You would expect an ATG to just man up and demand a rematch instead of crying foul.

 

If Tyson had regained the title from Holyfield, beaten Douglas in a rematch & put together another significant title reign you could argue it was a good thing. But that's a lot of ifs that didn't happen.

 

I’m of the school of thought that lineage can be re-established if two top-ranked contenders duke it out in a Champion’s absence.

In any case, Tyson never again became in any sense the World’s Champion. That’s a big mark on his record in my book.

 

Exactly. Mike was taken apart by Douglas. Taken apart. And by not the 2nd best heavy around at the time. Just not the result you see with many champions when they lose their title. It makes for a very hard and rarely successful rebuilding project.

 

To be fair Tyson did look promising in his "comeback" fights, especially his wars for Razor Ruddock. It was the prison sentence that really disrupted everything. I don't think a Tyson who beat Buster but still went to prison for 3 years would have looked any better after.

 

Perhaps but I cannot award points for promise, only results.

 

I never had the opinion that Tyson looked anything better than mediocre against Ruddock. Razor left lots of openings. Always did. Hardly a, smart fighter in the ring either. Not a multi-dimensional kind of fighter.

But Tyson no longer had the foot speed and timing he used to have to land his punches while coming in. He used to be terrific at it and here was an opponent wide open for it. 1986 or 87 Tyson gets this guy out of there in 2 or 3 rounds with a brutal ko.

Lennox sure didn't miss those Ruddock openings in his next fight, did he? Same lazy jab. Same bring his hand back slow. Then, pick it up for any kind of defense. It was a huge window he gave every opponet---hell Weaver even landed and who had slower hands than Weaver? And it was hardly a case of Razor doing a good job defensively with his right hand. So it was both hands.

Or the way he fell for feints. Lots of openings and lots for every round. Opponents really did not have to do much to create--the openings were there when the opening bell rang.

But that window was wide open for Tyson and he no longer had the brilliant reflexes to capitalize.

 

On that night, Dougkas may very well have been the 2nd best heavy in the world or maybe even number one.