The Return of James ' Buster' Douglas 1996-1997

After an beating Mike Tyson in 1990 for the Lineal/Undisputed Championship title. He performed poorly in his subsequent defense against Evander Holyfield losing his title and disappeared into alcoholism and near death diabetic coma in 1996 he went back into training to reduce a substantial amount of weight from 400lbs to 244lbs to fight Tony La Rossa he still showed his aility to move on his feet and put together a combination of punches and went on a successive winning streak in 1997 against Rocky Pepeli, Dicky Ryan and Brian Scott improving each fight. He won after being hit after the bell of the first round against Louis Monaco and then put in excellent peformance against Quinn Navarre. His next opponent with Lou Savarese was arranged and Bob Arum had been discussing the possibility of arranging rematches with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield and also fighting Lennox Lewis if he got past Savarese. However Douglas was knocked out. He had two more fights both wins in 1998 and 1999 and then retired.

Does anyone remember Douglas's comeback in 1996?

 

I want to say ESPN (or maybe Tuesday Night Fights?) televised a couple of them.

Too much damage had been done by the diabetes. He had no punch resistance. Savarese was the one in the opposite corner when the inevitable happened.

 

I think you are right, it was Tuesday night fights. Douglas always had the talent, but not the drive except for that one night.

 

I think Douglas just quit vs Monaco TBH.

The punch was literally 0.5 seconds after the bell.

Yeah it was technically after the bell but it wasn't intentional and Douglas could've continued but decided not to.

 

It was clear that Douglas was a joke when he played dead against Monaco.

He would’ve been more intriguing as a Butterbean opponent than a guy to be matched against the elite of the division.

 

I think his career is more than the Mike Tyson fight. Interestingly Mike Katz the New York journalist saidback in 1989 he felt the only boxer at the time to beat Tyson was Douglas. Also Mickey Duff said Douglas was all wrong stylistically for Tyson to Cus D'Amato. His 4 fight win streak from 1988-1990 was impressive beating Mike Williams, Trevor Berbick, Oliver McCall and Mike Tyson were all decent wins. He just couldn't reproduce it again. He looked great against Quinn Navarre in 1997 leading up to the Lou Savarese fight but that was it.

 

He looked completely demoralised!

 

He looked like he could of continued against Louis Monaco but mentally quit. He fought Quinn Navarre in his next fight and looked excellent against admittely a limited opponent as @Saintpat said the diabetes and alcohol runied whatever remaining punch resistance he had left. If he had fought Butterbean do you think it would have been similar to when Larry Holmes did?

 

I remember it well mate.
It was of course far too long away from his best days.
If only he'd gotten back in shape after the Holyfield loss.

 

This is funny to think about. Larry Holmes, who had no quit in him, fought a 334 pound Butterbean who was past his prime.

If Buster fought a 310 pound Butterbean in 97/98, he might be able to jab and move enough to win a four rounder, but would probably get laid out if it were an eight rounder or more. He might lose a four rounder anyway.

Butterbean did kick Monaco’s ass fwiw.

 

I wasn't taking a shot at him. He beat some good fighters but he was a different guy when he fought Tyson. Williams and Berbick were pretty shot when he beat them. He was no doubt a top ten heavyweight at that time but very inconsistent.

 

Yes. The luster came off rather quickly with the Louis Monaco fight. Buster was essentially Knocked out in one.

I never really took it seriously after that.

Roy Jones was supposed to move up and fight Buster, instead of Savarese. That was supposed to be Roy's heavyweight debut. But his dad talked him out of it. Savarese was basically the replacement for Jones.

Backing out of that very winnable fight started all the trouble between Roy, the WBC and Rocchigiani.

Roy's dad wasn't the best at handing out advice.

 

He looked great against Brian Scott too!

 

Yes the Louis Monaco fight seemed to disrupt the momentum of his comeback. The Quinn Navarre fight was straight after that and he suddenly looked great again.

When did Roy Jones Jr and his dad go there seperate ways? Roy Jones Jr would have just lost and then won the rematch in 1997 against Montell Grifin and kept campaigning at Light Heavyweight until 2003 when he fought John Ruiz for the WBA Heavyweight Title. I wonder how well he would have done if he remained at Heavweight and gone back done to Light Heavy and what real options would have been available to him back then?