33 years ago - Exactly how good was Buster Douglas?

It wasn't written for morons with zero insight. Bye now.

 

You’ve got carried away again.

 

This forum is amazing you can just post whatever on here.

 

He fought a near perfect fight barring the late knockdown against a below par Tyson who was exposed truth be told. Was the end of the Tyson myth (unless your name is Bruno).

 

Amazing, isn’t it, what nonsense some people can cook up.

The idea of Ruiz beating Joshua was a bigger upset than Douglas beating Tyson is probably the most ridiculous one I’ve ever come across with regards to boxing, ever, anywhere. To suggest that seeing Joshua getting beat was somehow a bigger shock than seeing Tyson getting beat - lol. And that’s coming from someone who was never a Tyson fan.

 

"The idea of Ruiz beating Joshua was a bigger upset than Douglas beating Tyson is probably the most ridiculous one I’ve ever come across with regards to boxing, ever, anywhere"

I know it's blasphemy for nostalgists but no one (including yourself) has made a solid case against it, just a lot of "wow, just wow". If Tyson-Douglas was the biggest statistical upset ever in a heavyweight championship fight, Joshua-Ruiz was No.2 or No.3. So debating the exact order of the top 3 is eminently reasonable, obviously.

Tyson was absurdly overhyped. So was Joshua but Tyson far more so. A measure of this is the fact that people STILL believed he was unbeatable after he'd been trashed by a "journeyman/fringe contender" (how Douglas was seen in the boxing press pre-Tyson) and spent 4+ years inactive in prison! Having had a few knockover jobs he opened as a 1/25 favourite over Holyfield, who was 2-1 in his last 3, coming off a win, only losing to Bowe in a war, had uncontroversially beaten Mercer, who'd just gone 50-50 with Lewis and was vastly more active than Tyson, who hadn't been past 3 rounds in 5+ years. Then after Holyfield had leathered Tyson in a similar manner to Douglas (who Holyfield had also destroyed lol), Tyson was STILL the 1-2 FAVOURITE in the Holyfield rematch! The Tysonmania phenomenon is a fascinating study of the insanity of crowds and mass psychology.

Mike Tyson is more or less the 5'10, 215 lbs version of a young Anthony Joshua.

Uncanny parallels between Mike Tyson and Anthony Joshua

1. Both were undefeated champions with 3 year reigns, knocking almost everyone out

2. Both KO'd an ageing ATG former lineal champion who'd been dethroned by a 4/1 underdog on points and was returning from an extended layoff

3. Both suffered historically massive upset defeats to one-hit wonders who lost the belts in their first defences after not preparing properly and blowing-up 15 lbs

4. Both came back and became champions again but didn't seem to be the same fighters they once were and had much shorter second reigns

5. Their second reigns were ended by ATG cruiserweights in fights they were expected to win and they lost the immediate rematches, resulting in public meltdowns

6. Both were overhyped and exposed as on-top fighters who lacked mental fortitude in the tough moments

 

33 years... Incredible.

It's scary how quickly time passes.

 

Really?
Was written by one however

Gonna block as per usual Neet?

Get a job and out of that basement it does odd things to you

 

Only points 1-2 are relevant.

The others were what happened afterwards.

Yes, there’s similarities.

But AJ never looked as dominant as Mike did.

You can spin whatever you want. AJ-Ruiz was a shock, but Mike-Douglas was a huge shock.

 

"The others were what happened afterwards."

So? I'm not limiting it to pre-Douglas/pre-Ruiz, I'm comparing their whole careers as AJ's unfolds.

"But AJ never looked as dominant as Mike did."

Pre-Douglas Mike had at least half a dozen fights where he went the distance or otherwise looked pedestrian, don't try to claim otherwise. And 2015-2016 Joshua was regarded as a 6'6, 250 lbs Tyson for good reason, ask Kevin, Whyte, Martin. Many of Tyson's opponents were also drug addicted bums (even some of Tyson's best contenders were on heroin/crack at times) who came purely for a check and were thinking about where to dive on their ringwalks.

Joshua-Ruiz was No.2 or No.3 at 25/1, Tyson-Douglas was No.1 at 42/1. Both were enormous shocks but odds are just one metric. When taking hype out of the equation and thinking about it rationally, big Buster thrashing little Mike wasn't nearly as crazy as fat Andy dropping Africanules 4x and making him quit.

 

His inconsistency was his downfall.

 

What are you talking about now?

You only see what you want to see.

Nobody but you believes that it was a bigger shock.

Nothing you type will change that.

It shook the boxing world.


Yes, of course Mike was more dominant.

Even on the odd occasion he went the distance, he was still dominant.

He never looked vulnerable like AJ did against Wlad.

He blasted out Berbick, Spinks, Holmes and Bruno etc, who were all on another level to guys like Martin.

Sure, you can say that he was overhyped. But that’s not the argument/debate is it? You could say that it was so shocking to people because he was overhyped. It doesn’t matter does it.

At the end of the day, boxing was more popular back then, Mike was much more famous than AJ was, and he was seen by many as being invincible, which AJ never was. Nobody referred to AJ as being a 250 pound Tyson.


I think that you’d make a great lawyer or politician.

 

"Nobody but you believes that it was a bigger shock."

Are you calling @Rumsfeld a liar? If you watched the video you would have heard him say that some boxing fans believed that the Ruiz upset was bigger. If a large poll was carried out after the arguments had been made on both sides in front of an audience, a significant minority at minimum would agree with me.

"He never looked vulnerable like AJ did against Wlad."

That's because Tyson never beat anyone as big, skilled, experienced, dangerous and determined as 41 year old inactive Wlad. Holmes was scared of Tyson, flabby, coming off a layoff. Bruno was very scared. LHW Spinks was terrified. Journeyman Ribalta, Mitch Green, Tillis, crackhead Tucker, smackhead Thomas, Ruddock etc. weren't nearly as scared and made him look human, even very beatable for a higher level fighter like Holyfield. But then Tyson got thrashed by Douglas so the Holyfield thrashings were delayed.

"Sure, you can say that he was overhyped. But that’s not the argument/debate is it?"

My claim is that Ruiz is a bigger upset and I've given plenty of reasons in the first post, which no one can refute because they are factual. An argument for the opposing view can be made but it's not nearly as strong in my opinion. It basically comes down to the power media hype, illusions that the public buy into.

"Nobody referred to AJ as being a 250 pound Tyson."

That's exactly how Hearn/Matchroom marketed him. The message was: "AJ is an aggressive, explosive combination puncher, a super-athlete with great speed, power, accuracy, with viciousness in abundance and a devil may care attitude to what's coming back at him, like Mike Tyson but 6'6, 250 lbs". That was the public's view of Joshua, largely why he was a big favourite against Wlad despite being a green pro, why he was 1/25 against Ruiz despite Ruiz going 50-50 in a world title fight with Parker in NZ.

 

Safe for a freak injury, Vitaly beats Buster. Everything else you are right about.

 

I think that you’re one of the most argumentative posters I’ve ever seen on this board. And you’ll go to huge lengths to try and convince yourself and other people of something that you end up invested in.

It amuses me.

Yes, of course SOME fans may genuinely believe that the AJ-Ruiz fight was a bigger shock. But the Tyson-Douglas fight shocked the whole world, including non boxing fans, because Tyson was HUGE back then in the 80’s. He was maybe as popular as Michael Jackson. The defeat was just utterly shocking.

It doesn’t matter if you think Mike’s opponents were scared. The point is, he utterly dominated most of his opponents in a way that AJ didn’t, which genuinely had people believing that he was invincible, thus causing the huge shock.

Nobody thought that AJ was absolutely invincible did they.

Yes, of course Matchroom marketed him that way. That was their JOB.

However, he never had the aura that Mike had around him.

An old Wlad made AJ look vulnerable.

Whereas Mike was blasting out guys who’d never been blasted out before.

Nobody has even attempted to refute your post, as they’ve just completely dismissed it.

Why don’t you do a poll.

It’s not even a question as far as I’m concerned.

I was there in 1990.

People who weren’t even boxing fans were talking about it. Female school teachers etc. It was monumental.