Tyson-Douglas II.

Douglas likely comes in out of shape ala Holyfield in which case he goes down early against a motivated Tyson. If Douglas shows up in shape & ready to prove fight 1 was no fluke then I fancy Douglas again.

 

I think Tyson's people were concerned that back to back losses to the same dude would permanently dent his confidence. I think they assumed Douglas would come in motivated.

A motivated Douglas is always a tough fight for Tyson. The long 83 inch reach, quick feet, fast combos and the big right uppercut. Its like Douglas was designed in a lab to take on Tyson.

That being said, i do think the best 88 Tyson beats Tokyo Douglas. I also think that Tyson would have stopped Douglas in a rematch since Douglas didn't even like boxing. I doubt Douglas would have motivated himself twice in a row. He did it once due to his mother and i doubt he could do it a second time.

 

Douglas probably would have shown up out of shape and gotten flattened quickly, just like he did versus Evander

 

Douglas was obligated to face Holyfield as the mandatory and the money he was being offered by billionaire steve Wynn was too much to turn down . In the meantime Tyson’s team was being rebuilt and they wanted him to test out the waters with a few easy opponents. Then later in 1990 Douglas lost to Evander and retired rather than to campaign for anymore paydays. I suppose a rematch between Douglas and Tyson could have happened around 1996 when both were on the comeback trail but I never heard any mention of it. That and Douglas’s comeback was very short lived. So in conclusion, these guys path’s never really crossed again.

 

A rematch win against Douglas would make Tysons career look far better, but it never happened so many fans are convinced Douglas beats any version of Tyson because they think Tyson always collapses at adversity

 

Tyson badly wanted the rematch but he and Don King screwed it up with their post fight comments about the long count and Douglas was also mandated to face Holyfield.
Also, Douglas went to court to break his contract with King during the months after his victory.

After Douglas' disastrous performance against Holyfield, the rematch was pointless and Tyson concentrated on regaining the title.

 

OK, first let's look at why it didn't happen?

There was a rematch clause in the contract, but Don King decided to try to reverse the result, with his absurd long count argument.

It even appeared that some sanctioning bodies were contemplating going along with it.

Eventually the backlash was so sever that they backed down.

Bert Sugar threatened that Ring Magazine would petition congress to investigate any sanctioning body that didn't recognize Douglas as Champion.

This cause so much animosity between Douglas's team and King, that they violated the rematch clause, and invited him to sue them.

He ended up being sued by Donald Trump of all people.

In the end Douglas took the Holyfield fight instead, and the rest is history.

There was actually momentum for a Tyson Douglas II again, when Douglas came out of retirement, and went on his winning streak.

Obviously teh Savaresse loss squashed that.

 

And a couple of years later a Mike on coke blew away Big Lou in 30 seconds

 

Douglas would’ve came in out of shape and got stopped.

 

Yes I believe so.

 

I'm sure Mike Tyson would've stopped Douglas if they fought again.

That's why I'm glad it didn't happen. It would've removed some of the luster off the Douglas win in Tokyo, which was one of the greatest wins in heavyweight history.

Guys with all the power and control slip up once in a while. They usually are allowed to come back and smack the other guy around and regain whatever "shine" they lost, as we've seen.

But it's also nice when they sometimes just let a major upset stand on its own.

The powerbrokers don't like to see the applecart upset. But fans need to know upsets can occur or there's no point in watching, really.

 

I think in hindsight King made a tactical error, in trying to reverse the result of the first fight, with the long count stunt.

He would have done better just to push the rematch clause, and flatter Douglas and his team, and there is every reason to think that Tyson might have reversed the result in a rematch.

Of course the ramifications of that could be huge, because Tyson might have taken all the belts to prison with him.

 

If a rematch did occur I don't think Douglas would have the same laser focus and intense drive that he had in their first fight. He was sort of like an FOTC Frazier that night-totally locked in and was simply not going to lose!!

Tyson took him lightly in the 1st fight-he would come into a rematch determined to even the score. Mike wins rather easily--KO or stoppage 6-7 rounds.