33 years ago today - exactly how good was Tokyo Douglas?

Most amazing sporting event I ever saw. I’d seen Douglas & thought he was pretty solid. I picked him to definitely make it to the 2nd round.

Watched this with my mother who taught me about boxing. We always would bring this fight up every year. Like Douglas says in his post fight interview, “God Bless her heart.”

 

Well- I think Douglas was the same as always obviously he was in shape but it’s his game plan that had him take the win. Tyson had been showing his weaknesses off for quite a while- it was only a matter of time before someone took advantage. Especially with how he was treating himself.

Later on when he started bending at the waist more and fighting off the front foot he really doomed himself against Evander, whose team saw all the same flaws as Busses. It’s funny because I think Mike would’ve KO’d Ali but he lost to Douglas. Boxing huh?

 

I've said it before, but Douglas is like that guy you work with or go to school with who everyone can see is naturally talented but just wants to put in enough hours and do just enough of a mediocre job that he doesn't get fired or flunk out of school. Boxing more of a job that he's good at rather than a passion he had drive for. But, he put it all together for the Tyson fight, Opportunity met talent met hard work met desire.

The stars aligned in so many ways for Douglas. Tyson going down that road of self destruction, Douglas being in shape and motivated, it was a crazy upset that I probably will never see again in my lifetime, its up there with Braddock Baer so maybe once every 50ish years? After getting dropped Douglas would of, on other occasions, said "well Ive had enough of this, time to pack it in", but on that night he slammed his fist down and sat " not today".

 

People think of it as a fluke performance from Douglas, but he'd been in good form leading up to the Tyson fight. Arguably Douglas was as good vs Mike Williams as he was vs Tyson, where he amazingly knocked down Williams 3 times with a jab. Then his wins over Berbick, McCall, etc. Douglas was having his best run of victories in his entire career, and Tyson and his people should've seen him as more of a threat.

 

Thank you will look at this later. He definitely wasn't a bum he just didn't utilize his talent enough overall in his career. Still had wins over Page, Mccall n Berbick going into the Tyson fight. Tysons team really shouldn't of overlooked him like they did but that is Tysons fault and kudos for Douglas getting up from that uppercut.


Tyson was a train wreck at the time and Douglas was focused. Not Douglas fault he did what he had to do. Biggest upset arguably in sports.

 

@Rumsfeld with another top effort.

Good to see someone whom I respect and hold in high esteem give Big Bus his due instead of whining about Tyson being KO’d by Tokyo geisha girls.

 

Douglas did look good vs. Mike Williams, his jab was as impressive as any jab I've ever seen. I haven't seen the fight in a long time, but Williams was a live opponent and Douglas dominated the fight. Douglas had the size, the boxing pedigree, the time around boxing, he had it all and for a few fights he put it all together, if he had never fought again after the Williams and Tyson fights he would have lost out on all of the money he made for the Holyfield fight, but he would have gone out on two of the most impressive performances in heavyweight history.

 

With such an unfolding of circumstances, boxing fans were deprived of the Holyfield-Tyson fight in 1990. Who wouldn't like to watch that? If it wasn't the top fight of the 90s, it would be top 3 (Lewis-Bowe).

 

Great video Rummy! I have seen it before too.

People go to extremes with Tyson.
Yes he was among the best H2H ever.
Douglas by that time was a top fighter, very talented, peak, fully developed as a fighter-& finally as motivated as Tyson used to be.

We have seen it many times.
However great even an ATG is, you cannot coast-in training & attitude-& expect to necessarily beat the very best fighters who are training harder & fighting smarter.
Not to mention the team Tyson did not have by then, let alone the terrible in-ring support.

Edit: Douglas was not known for Epic Power, but he was throwing Heavy Leather when he really went on the offensive.
You can see just from how much Tyson's head swiveled upon his massive neck & was moved by uppercuts that Douglas was firing on all cylinders.

How good was Tokyo Douglas?
THAT NIGHT he would win against some ATGs.
Others he would be competitive against.
I think few would be expected to steam roll him.

Now that Douglas against Peak Bowe, another fighter who was at his best only briefly...
I would make Douglas at least a little better than even money.

 

Very good ,I watched the fight 2 days ago.That version of Douglas would give anybody trouble.

 

Top vid, thanks.

I guess the Japanese folk could’ve adopted Big Buster as their very own, real life Godzilla.

 

An ATG performance and that version of Douglas would have continued to do well in the 90s if he kept that mentality. That period between losing to Tucker while he was ahead and leading up to his mother's passing he really put his mind into boxing and it culminated all in that day.

Although obviously not at his best, that version of Mike would still destroy most fighters and give great ones a lot of trouble. McCall warned Tyson to not underestimate Douglas and he paid the price. If both fighters were at top notch it would certainly be something great to witness.

 

One of my favourite fights! The book The Last Great Fight and the 30 for 30 ESPN documentary 42 to 1 cover the events in detail.

 

Another real good video, Rummy. For those around at that time, it was and remains one of THE hallmark moments in our lifetime. It was one of the biggest moments in the sport's history, and we were lucky to see it unfold in real time. It was quite the deal.

I agree too that any pithy, simplistic explanations of either man's performance, both exemplary and lacking, does a disservice to both. Despite Tyson's Bright and Snowell-induced deficiencies, it was going to take this kind of focused and courageous effort to unseat the champion, and not just anybody coming in off the street was going to do it. It was a real achievement.