Anyone else think Buster Douglas is underrated?

He had great natural talents and skill, he was 1 of those fighters you would think 'if only he would.....', and for 1 night he actualy did do those things he should have against a great off his best but still a great performance and a good run coming into that fight. After that he was happy with his lot and had no determination, otherwise he would have gave Holy a better battle

 

he was extremely good on that night in toyko but i would argue that morrison against mercer was just as fluid

 

I don't think he's underrated at all. He's rated for beating Tyson (rightly so) when he was a massive underdog so what more praise should he get?

Clearly he was skilled in a number of areas, though I don't rate him as highly as you, but his showing against Holyfield in his first defence makes it difficult to argue a stronger case.

 

I think he was very overrated. He is overrated for beating an out of shape Mike Tyson who was not focused at all. Mike Tyson in shape and in his prime stops Douglas in one or 2. I really believe this. Douglas quit against Tucker in 1987 and literally quit against Evander months after he beat Mike. He was not underrated at all. He beat an all time great, but he was not close to a great or hall of fame fighter.

 

Peak Holy was quicker in handspeed terms, but for footspeed i agree.

 

The only way Buster could get out of his contract with King was too lose, not saying he did'nt want to get up of the deck as it was a corker of a punch but he got about $22 million of of Steve Wynn for that fight as that was when Wynn thought he could take over boxing in Vegas & freeze out Top Rank + Buster still had to weigh King in with $4Million for the privalige of losing his title & YES Buster is underated, superb boxer when he wanted to be that is!!! The focused & trim Buster of the Tyson hammering would chop both Klitschko's into cat meat.

 

"Big Bus" Douglas is mostly an under-achiever on the whole. He was big, talented and skilled, but he was often too lazy and owned a shaky chin.. However, just for one great night in Japan against Tyson in 1990, Ol' Buster really had his **** wired tight as a drum and it showed, too...

MR.BILL:bbb

 

I initially picked Buster to beat Holyfield, but then when he came in at 246 I changed my pick. What a shameful showing after the most amazing victory of all-time. It's really tragic when you think of it. Like Leon Spinks, Buster was overwhelmed by sudden fame and didn't handle it well at all.

I think his career could still be seen as pretty solid though, if not for the knockout by Lou Savarese, a decent fighter but not one to lose to if one wants to be see as one of the greats.

 

I'm actually not certain he could be more OVERRATED. The battle of Young, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers, Buster, Ike and Tua would be an epic battle of overrated supremacy, really. Also, a fact is a verifiable truth. You can't say something is a fact *in your opinion* and expect to go far with it.

 

Decision wins over Greg Page , David Jaco , Trevor Berbick and Oliver McCall , stoppage wins over Mike Tyson and Mike Williams .
So yes , Douglas is underrated , but due to his losses (especially the stoppages of course) He is a top 20 HW but not top 10 for me.

 

I was never sold on Mike Williams a.k.a. Union Cane as a fighter... I'm not sure I ever saw him win a fight...

MR.BILL:deal

 

Mike Williams seems to have a true stoppage win over James Tillis and a SD loss to (overrated by these boards) Tim Witherspoon , of my experience SD wins are actually draws or actual losses almost every time.

 

i've always thought of the douglas v tyson fight as the perfect example of styles making fights....that night he had the perfect style to beat tysons style....but thats not to say he could have beaten lesser champions than tyson who would have had different styles.....if i've worded that to make any sense