Fill me in on the time like I know Holyfield was the upcoming mandatory but why didn't Mike Tyson fight George Foreman before the Buster Douglas fight? Buster Douglas wasn't a mandatory and the George Foreman fight was much bigger Why didn't they make a Tyson vs Foreman fight instead of Tyson vs Douglas
Foreman was seen as a Butterbean-esque circus act around the time of Tyson vs Douglas. People enjoyed seeing a smiley obese grandpa brutally knocking out professionals half his age but most didn't even consider him a part of the division, he was just a side-show. It wasn't until he broke Holyfield's KO streak and actually gave him a fight that people started noticing that he might have more to give than entertainment. Had Foreman and Tyson fought back then I imagine many people would be pretty upset at the idea of the most talented, destructive and popular fighter in the division wasting his time with a fat old man from two generations ago that was more or less a freak-show.
Douglas was suppossed to be a tune up for the Holyfield fight, Foreman was given no chance of beating Tyson until he did well vs Holyfield, before Tyson was beaten by Douglas he was viewed as being unbeatable.
Also, Foreman fought Gerry Cooney a month before Tyson fought Douglas, and although Foreman was still in his comeback stage, Cooney was seen as a very real threat to Foreman due to his punching power, Foreman vs Cooney was a very marketable fight at the time.
Agreed. The manner that George absolutely caved him in made people begin to take George a little more seriously.
I don't think Tyson wanted any part of Foreman. If he beat Foreman Foreman was old and if he got knocked out he'd have been embarassed. While you could have justified giving Foreman a title shot he was someone Tyson would have had to go out of his way to pick. If Tyson wasn't interested when Foreman held the lineal title there was no reason for him to have interest in 1990. Douglas had the best case for a title shot at that time with wins over McCall and Berbick. Tysons aura of invincibility was at its peak and Douglas was a 40+-1 underdog. Irrational or not no Tyson fight at that time would have generated intersted so far as his challenger being seen as a threat. The main thing that would have made people interested in a Foreman a title shot would have been the Cooney win. But that happened a month earlier Tyson v Douglas was probably a done deal already. Any interest in Foreman v Tyson would have come after he got through Douglas and potentially Holyfield which didn't happen. It was a potential next option not "the fight to make".
Foreman wasn't treated as a serious contender up until the Gerry Cooney fight, which happened a month before Tyson vs Douglas. He was still kind of a circus act until the Holyfield war.