Mike Tyson vs Dokes instead of Douglas, 1990

yeah, i fully agree with this. i think a bit of a myth has built up that Tyson was terrible in 1990. I have rewatched the Tyson-Douglas fight a number of times. Tyson was very good (albeit not his best), and very determined. Douglas was quite superb.

Dokes would have suffered against 1990 Tyson.

 

Dokes would have gotten owned by Tyson in 1990.Prime Dokes may have had a shot, but that's highly debatable.

 

I have always compared Mike Tyson with Hector Camacho when it comes to heart. I don't think either one will lay down on you, but they sometimes just start going through the motions when the going gets tough.

For most of Mike's career, whenever he just went through the motions it was enough. Against Douglas, he appeared to be doing this from the opening bell. He did not even wait for it to get tough. That is why I don't think he was mentally prepared for this fight. He didn't attack the same way at the opening bell that I have seen him do every other time. He won the first rounds against Holyfield I, Lewis, Williams, and McBride.

Mike was still throwing hard punches against Douglas. That was a hard uppercut that dropped Douglas in the 8th round of their fight. I think that Dokes would have eaten too many of Tyson's punches, even if Mike had simply been going through the motions.

Tyson ko Dokes.

 

Fact is, it was Douglas who went in against Tyson, and he gave Tyson a beating. Don't think for one minute I'm a Tyson hater, because Mike Tyson is my favourite fighter of all time. At his peak, he was a formidable fighter, one of the best of all time in my view.

Now, strongly feel Tyson never showed up mentally at the Douglas fight. You can tell by he's not focused by his body language during the introductions that something's not quite there with Mike. Mike appeared not all that interested to be honest.

Physically, Tyson was nowhere near prepared. People say his weight was only 220lbs so he must have been, but what the scales read don't mean ****. Tyson himself has amditted that he was more interested in japenese women than doing training. I believe Mike only did certain amounts of training when the media wanted an openm workout etc.

Tyson, King, the whole team were way too confident, it was as if they felt Douglas was a a complete bum. I do think that was more to do with King than Tyson, but hey, Mike should have known better than to listen to Don.

It's hypothetical, but I think it's fair to say if Douglas fought a well-trained, conditioned Tyson, then Mike would have taken care of business, but it didn't tunr out like that.

 

Dokes lost what was left of his once excellent potential in the Holyfield war...

Tyson would of won easily

But actually Tyson was pencilled in to give Ribalta a rematch in Japan. But Jose looked so bad on the undercard of Tyson/Williams against Jeff Sims, that Douglas (who beat a journeyman by the name of Oliver McCall on the same bill) got to play the supposed next Tyson victim.

What could of been potentially intresting was a proposed Tyson/Ruddock fight in Canada in November 89...

 

Dokes probably lost it lying down on the Canvas high as a kite vs Coetzee.

 

But he did seem to redeem himself for one night, and one night only, against Holyfield.

 

I think that version of Douglas would have had a good shot against all these fighters if they had an off night. None, with the possible exceptions of Bowe and Foreman, would have been outclassed like that, though. Patterson might have been KO'd, but not beat up in that systematic fashion.

 

tyson by ko inside of 4. dokes possessed great fighting heart and great hand speed but lacked the defense and power needed to beat tyson. He also tended to slug too much, which would play right into tysons hands.

 

Douglas was a pheomena that night, and not enough credit is given him. I used to argue all the time with a friend who was just sure that "it wasn't Tyson" that night, and he would have lost to anyone and that if they had a rematch, that he would have "killed" Buster. I completely disagreed with that...Douglas was special that night, and there were other guys who would have folded like a cheap lawn chair against Tyson that night in Tokyo. Of course Buster wasn't able to maintain that level of excellence for even one defense of the title, but on that night against Tyson, Buster Douglas was for real, and perhaps had his head been on a bit straighter, he could have replicated his form of 2/11/90, or come close enough to beat the other guys around at the time, including Holyfield. Oh, and IMO, Tyson, even a sub-par Tyson would have ko'd Dokes in 7 or 8.

 

Would have been game, but gone down several times before the referee made it clear to Mike he was out of his depth with Tyson..

 

Bingo,

Of course, I realize that you wrote this response some 8 months ago or whatever, but I agree with it nonetheless. While we can't reverse the outcome nor take the win away from Douglas, the fact doesn't change that Tyson was clearly not his usual self that evening, and no I will not by the argument that " he was facing someone who took him out of his fight game. " I miss Sonny's jab and wish the man would return to ESB, but I have never agreed, and still don't concur with him on his views regarding Tyson vs Douglas.

As for Dokes vs Tyson in February of 1990? Dokes gained a lot of weight following his match with Holyfield and seemed to have been a tad tainted from that beating. Ruddock easily dispatched Dokes in the spring of 1990, shortly after Tyson had lost his title. Dokes had also recently been floored enroute to a victory over a journeyman named Lionel Washington. I think that for stylistic reasons combined with Dokes severe decline, even a jaded Tyson probably would have beaten him on that evening. However, had the Dokes of the Holyfield fight shown up, it might have changed things, and Douglas was not the only fighter that I would have picked in 1990 to beat a sinking Tyson.

 

With hindsight, or are you the multi millionare that got the 42-1 odds spot on?

 

Time and styles would have been against Dokes. Dokes used up his last great fight against Holyfield, and he had nothing left in the tank afterward. The couple of wins he had between the Holyfield fight and getting smashed by Ruddock were all against nobodies with lousy records. As soon as he started running into live fighters again he was getting knocked out hard.

And style wise, Dokes would have been standing in front of Tyson and trading, (as he did with Holyfield) unlike Douglas who could use his movement and long stiff jab. Not a good matchup for Dokes.