...until he fumbled around for his mouthpiece??? According to an interview with the OTR radio crew. This is a very interesting statement, I think. I would have thought he thought what those of us who were watchingt he fight live thought - that Tyson was knocked the F*CK out!!! Buster Douglas: I thought Tyson was getting up until I had seen him looking for that mouth piece and then I knew that he was really hurt http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=27715&more=1
Hes said he never thought he would be able to stop Mike. Hes been quoted saying "Mike has an amazing chin, I could not believe how much he absorbed that night, I thought he was unstoppable half way through" Mike got a chin, for sure.
That's one of the primary things that separated Tyson from many big punchers - take Earnie Shavers or Tommy Morrison, for example - and accounted for his success.
Thats what convinces me he's a H2H player, nobody would've had an easy nights work with a prime Tyson. A guy with Mikes style could not have had an egg shell chin and unified the titles, there's no way in hell it would've been possible.
One of the most brutal combination I have seen. Brutal. Tyson's eye was also ****ed in that fight it was shut. Masterful Boxing performance by Douglas.
Tyson dug his own grave in that one fight. Took handpicked Buster lightly and had laughed at Oliver McCall for losing to Douglas. One has to think what the hell was going on in Team Tyson at that time, Buster Douglas had given Tucker a serious time before gassing out, and had just strung together a pretty good few wins over good opponents and sparring partners of Tysons, who even warned him for Buster!
Tyson has explained that he was obviously disoriented and he thought the referee would not let him fight without his mouthpiece.
Actually, Tyson DID get up. I actually think he beat the count. Regardless, it was a perfectly good stoppage because he was out of it and had taken a real beating in that fight. The real debate about the fight was whether Douglas would have beaten the count in the 8th if the referee had given a proper 10-count instead of the slow-motion one that he gave that actually took closer to 14 seconds.
That's a good point. Although he did not get up in any condition to continue, which is what I think Douglas meant.
I loved that combed Buster TKOd him with. It was brutal, sharp and thudding. If I recall correctly it was right off a clinching situation, too. These days we see these too often anymore. If there's a clinch now fighters rarely risk throwing a punch let alone a big combo coming out of the clinch.