The single most overlooked thing about Douglas in that fight was just how active he had recently been and just how good his recent opponents were. Douglas was winning “live” fights and had fought more rounds than Tyson had over the last 12 months. In this respect Douglas was a real contender. Not just an old name artificially listed in the rankings dug up from the sidelines fighting no hopers. Douglas really was legit.
Good point.The previous year Douglas had beaten McCall and Berbick and fought 3 times the year before that.Tyson had 1 round of competition in the 4 years before Tokyo.
If Tyson only defended against men who had recently won real fights with other contenders then Bonecrusher, Tucker, Williams and Douglas would have been Tysons only challengers.
I get the feeling he had Tyson's number but not many other top heavyweight's number. I have never thought that a specific fighter is different one night than another night. I think it is more about the opponent being the variable who changes the outcome rather than the fighter being different one night to the next.
It was the perfect storm for a focused Douglas to meet a Tyson with problems … Buster's jab and lead right totally disrupted the Mike T timing … then Douglas starts his own Journey into the land of the Unfocused
