Anyone else think Buster Douglas is underrated?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujcJQc_cygY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujcJQc_cygY[/ame]

decent ref.




bit of both. underated in his career and overall ability, overated over the one win. had wieght tissues. which i dont think is mainly about him being unmotivated. i think he was genetically chubby. blowing up to 270lbs in gym while still in the gym.

****ing incredible jab. heavy uppercut. sort of a mixture of larry holmes and mercer.

 

I would disagree with a lot of your points, but I think Douglas was a talented fighter. He was tall and well coordinated, but he wasnt underated because of his mental makeup. Thats part of boxing. There are a lot of talented fighters who dont have the mental makeup to be great. A lot dont make it as far as Douglas made it. I think Douglas is evaluated correctly for the most part and I also believe Tyson's lack of preparation and focus had something to do with his performance in Tokyo.

 

I think he was too inconsitant. The night he beat Tyson he may have beaten anyone. That Douglas would have at least beaten Holyfield in his first and only defense.

 

:huh

1. :blood
2. :admin
3.:dead

 

What is it people mean when they look at a fighter and declare he has "natural talent" ?

Everything you see fighters do in the ring is a product of training. Even speed is a developed asset. Even punch resistance is largely dependent on riding the punches (a developed skill) and general conditioning.

I never understand this "natural talent" thing. I'm sure it must exist, where certain great fighters just had a knack for boxing from day one, but that's not something you can tell simply by looking at them years later when they've been through tens of thousands of hours of training.

Buster Douglas was boxing since he was a kid.

 

Of course you can have a natural knack for something. Mediocre atheletes dont become great without having some natural advantage in ability. Douglas was a good athelete, both in basketball and boxing, he just wasnt mentally all that strong.

 

But when comaparing two top-class athletes, how do you measure which one had more "natural talent" ?
Unless you saw them the first day they were in the gym.

Also, some of the guys at the bottom of the heap may be the ones who found it easier first off, but were too lazy to develop that ability.

My point is, you can't just look and tell "Oh, it comes natural to him" ... "he has superior natural talent" .... when actually he might have taken years to just get the very basics.

 

Is douglas underrated?

There is very little between buster douglas and riddick bowe. I cannot seperate them since they had simular assets. For me, if one rates bowe you have to rate douglas also.

neither bowe or douglas were great fighters all their career. they both shone in one great fight each. bowe was bankroled as a future champ from the begining so on paper his early record reads beter than buster who was matched up on a shoe string budget. both failed apallingly after one night as a great fighter.



douglas beat some good fighters. Tyson, mccall, berbick, page without the fan fare of being an ex olympian. buster took fights as the opponent and won.

Had Douglas went down the tomato can route that bowe did he would have had the same career as bowe. No better, just the same. He still would have become disillusioned and unmotivated but it would have happened at the time it did with bowe. there is an upside to a career and a downside. there is a right time to fight somebody. there is a wrong time to fight somebody. it takes a very short examination of the two careers to work out bowe got all his guys at the right time and douglas fought most guys at the wrong time.

Bowe did not fight one unbeaten fighter until AFTER he won the title. Douglas fought 2 unbeaten fighters in their home towns within his first 4 fights.

Bowe has some good names on his resume before he won the title but apart from coetzer they were no longer good fighters when riddick fought them.
It was a matchmaking masterclass that douglas did not have as a luxury.

 

With all due respect for Douglas's assets and his excellent preperation for his challenge of Tyson, No, the last thing Buster Douglas is is underrated.

 

Top class atheletes always have natural talent, and probably fairly comparable in nature. Your second point is what usually differentiates the two.

 

I hate all that staged wrestlemania **** that is staged... Just horrid crap...
:rofl:dead

MR.BILL

 

No, Douglas is not underrated. If anything, he is overrated. A solid fighter, good enough to be in the top ten, who happened to get into great shape for one fight, and happened to meet a much better fighter who was unmotivated and improperly prepared and therefore allowed Douglas to look much better than he really was. An all time great win and excellent performance, yes, but based on his overall body of work, I'm not overly impressed with him. Lots of fighters would have beaten the version of Tyson that showed up that night, and would have looked just as good or better in doing it too, including Tony Tucker. I don't think a fighter is underrated because he got into great shape one night, but was just a B or C fighter for the rest of his career, including a pathetic performance in his very next bout against a guy who struggled to earn early KOs in Holyfield, but who showed what an in-shape motivated top guy should do with Douglas.

 

douglas was more than a B or C fighter.

a hot prospect gets all the right fights at the right time with the right notice, many of them are fights they cant lose, its the nature of the sport, most champions are groomed this way. even the best.

douglas got more "cross road" type fights that other champions bypassed because they were launched from the begining as "the face", a money fighter with a good contract and tv deals.

Douglas came through the back door.

busters first opponent was 6-0. in fact 2 of his first 4 opponents were unbeaten. in his first year Buster was matched with david bey another prospect far too soon.

douglas was matched as "the opponent" in competative fights against steffen tangsted, tex cobb, jessie ferguson (then 11-0), greg page, unbeaten tony tucker, trevor berbick, oliver mccall and Mike tyson when they were all good fighters who were all suposed to win.

Usualy with most champions (even great ones) you can count the competative fights they had before geting to the title on one hand because a lot of the build up opponents know the odds are against them. douglas was never the "face" but he won fights when he was cast as the "heel".

Buster fought a lot more guys who wanted to win than a lot of other champions who are given more credit.

 

in regards to bowe, you could argue that he
went 3-0 against holyfield. was able to overcome
being out on his feet against herbie hide (arguably
one of the hardest hitting HWs of all-time - and
i'm not paraphrasing there is an interview bowe
admitting that hide had bowe out on his feet, but,
was unable to finish bowe), being able to take out
coetzer, young versions of larry donald & bruce
seldon, tyrell biggs (yes, i know the "drugs" excuse)
and being able to out work tubbs is a great fight
are things that people over look (also disposing
bert cooper so easily - even though yes bert
was at a disadvantage when taking on opponents
that had too much of a height advantage on him).
i just think people get too cynical and overly
pessimistic when assessing some fighters careers.
with that said, bowe had the much better career than
douglas. douglas may have equal or better tools, but,
we'll never know! can only go off what happened.

i'd say that HWs Chris Byrd & even Maurice Harris deserve
shout-outs as far as slick HWs since 1990.

i think among the common man, hell yeah, buster is
underrated. but, amongst the purists? i think he's
rated rightfully so. also, i'm pretty sure david bey
made his debut fight against douglas. by the time
douglas fought berbick in '89, berbick was a former
shell of himself. mccall didn't establish himself yet.
so i don't know if you can really use those examples
in favor of douglas (the tucker, ferguson, cobb, williams
page ones you certainly can).