i can't remember this but, i was just wondering when tyson fought douglas, was it a mandatory or a voluntary defense tune up fight. i know the odds were crazy like 40-1.
Pretty sure he was ranked 2 or 3 by the IBF I believe. He was a legitimate contender..I dont think he was the mandatory, Im pretty sure Holy had just become that in all the organisations. You could say he was neither..but Im pretty sure Holyfield was on the cards for after this bout. So in some ways he could have been the "tune up" for this bout.
I believe it was a mandatory. Douglas beat Berbick in a fight in summer 89 to determine who would be challenger. If it wasnt a mandatory, King would have pulled all sorts of stunts, to keep douglas from fighting Holyfield.
Holyfield was rated #1 contender by all three sanctioning bodies, like you say, and here's part of an article announcing a Tyson-Holyfield date for June 18th (of 1990) saying exactly that; "The bout between Tyson, 37-0 with 33 knockouts, and Holyfield, 23-0 and 19 knockouts, has been anticipated as Holyfield is the top-ranked contender by the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing Association." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan 17th, 1990
Mandatory I think. People just completely ignored the troubles Tyson was going through at that point and focused on Douglas's. People just assumed that his loss to Tucker showed how bad he was, when Tyson blew Tony out. They forgot styles make fights.
It wasa voluntary and rumours at the time had it that Tyson had picked Douglas as an easy tune up/show in Tokyo from a list of the top 10.
46-1 were the odds tysons life had spiralled out of control due to that idiot don king, he wasnt training properly and even got dropped in training prior to the fight,was a shame coz if he stayed on the right path he would have retired undefeated
It was a voluntary defence. Holyfield was number 1 in all three organizations. Tyson had originally been scheduled to fight Razor Ruddock in November 1989, but pulled out. Injury or illness was the excuse but rumours have it that he was out partying and his camp called the fight off when they had another look at the Ruddock v. Bonecrusher Smith tape and decidedly Tyson needed extra time to get in right shape for a fighter like that. Next thing that happened was Buster Douglas was called in for February, and Ruddock put aside. In hindsight probably a bad choice.
