I know, for those who remember watching it, it' seems like no time at all. Anyway, what were people s thoughts going in? Did you see Buster doing the same thing here? Or, that this was The Real Deal s time??
God thirty years !! I can remember waiting with anticipation in the weeks leading up to it and praying that Evander would win. I didn’t order the fight on the night it happened but heard the results on the news then watched it maybe a week or two later. I was thrilled that Holy had become champ but also disappointed that Douglas showed up out of shape and didn’t seem to put much effort into retaining his crown. Could have been a decent fight
I know! It's unbelievable how time shoots past. I was much like you, I wanted Holyfield to win, I had a feeling he would but also thinking if he's in the same condition and mind frame as Tokyo then Holyfield in for a hard fight. When he turned up at the weight lookin like he did? That was it, I knew the winner. How Buster went out was prrety shocking, but his heart wasn't in it obviously.
The expectation going in was that it all depended on which Douglas showed up. There was the Douglas of the Tucker fight who gave up after winning a majority of the fight and there was the Douglas who showed up in Tokyo and fought his most perfect fight. Most of my friends said the Tyson win was a fluke and Holyfield would beat Douglas into retirement. This was basically correct, at least the retirement part. They also said Tyson would go on to beat Holyfield. That was also the general public assumption, which was, of course, wrong. Most people wanted to watch the fight just to see if lightning could strike twice. Is Buster the real champ kinda questions needed to be answered.
My wife and I just got back from our honeymoon and invited some friends over to watch it. We all threw some money on the table, cut up numbers between one and 12, put them in a hat, and if you picked out the round the fight ended in you won all the money. (If you picked 12, and it went to a decision, you won, too.) I picked 3.
won a lot on the fight. Most thought of Commander Vander as an imitation heavy and did not consider that strong championship reign of his at cruiser. But my take was he was going to be a tough guy to beat when he did get a shot at the heavyweight title. And Douglas was a rise to the occasion guy. They can put things together for a night or possibly 2. but not back to back and there were the stories of the Douglas weight and training issues going into the fight. It's the old saying---a chameleon changes colors. So maybe Buster changes colors. But he is still a lizard and not a different animal. Not a moth to butterfly evolution and some folks thought that was the case solely due to the Tyson win. But I never bought into the Tyson myth like others. so that sole victory was not enough for me as a guage as it was for many others. So there was an undefeated guy with a championship reign and a guy that had dug deep in a fight with Qawi. So I thought aside from a jab, Evander was the guy holding the cards in a pickem fight.
