Buster Douglas vs Oliver McCall - opinions

McCall warned Tyson about Douglas. Said he was never hit so hard by anyone

 

i heard a mccall inteview that he told team tyson to not take douglas lightly / team tyson laughed and the rest was history

 

Oliver McCall: Overrated (but still awesome) chin.
Underrated punching power

 

the audio is available on youtube.

Tyson did indeed laugh when Mcall warned him about Douglas

 

Yes he did. On a sidenote I asked Steve Lott if Tyson and McCall had any bad blood for each . I forgot what he answered, I'll have to find it and post it here.

 

Douglas, when physically, mentally and spiritually tuned to the task at hand, was levels beyond the general perception he had created with his fat and quit jobs. His legs, jab, mobility, timing and power were surprising once he got into his A-game zone. To me, he was one of the very gifted premium sized heavyweights and on the night he zoomed Tyson, I believe he would have been competitive with ANY big man in history.

 

So did Greg Page, maybe the knockdown in sparring knocked the sense out of him?

 

This was Douglas's second best win.

I am very skeptical about the mythical Tokyo Douglas, but McCalls testimony gives me pause for thought.

He said that Douglas at his best was better than Lennox Lewis, and McCall has everything to gain by bigging up Lewis.

 

Arguably his second best win. The Mike Williams win may or may not have been more impressive, ironic in that it was on the under card of Tyson's most celebrated win.

 

Douglas was getting good competative rounds in these fights against guys wanting to win. Most people who fought Tyson already felt doomed.

 

Oliver was pretty green at the time. I'd say Douglas's win over a still competent Greg Page in Jan. 86 was more impressive.

 

OK, so his second best win isn't all that great, indeed it barely propelled him into the top 10.

Yet he was still an all time great for 24 hours?

 

Although Douglas boxed very, very well on the night in Tokyo I think it was the adjustment to a real competative fight that Tyson struggled with that made Douglas look so much better. In his fights with Berbick and McCall Douglas was used to fighters standing up to him and coming back at him. Tyson really wasn't. Against a confused fighter not getting his own way Douglas really was able to show off all his moves that bit more perhaps?

 

Douglas > Lewis. It was shown against McCall. Douglas also fought much better versions of Tyson, Holyfield and Tucker. A right hand by David Bey could do Lewis in too. Lewis' only meaningful wins were Golota, Vitali (to a limited extent) and Bruno. Maybe Mavrovic and Ruddock. I am probably even wrong about some of these names. Holyfield, Tyson, Tucker - Lewis never got near any nearly prime version of them. Cheated vs Grant. Tua had no chance anyway. McCall #2 was a hoax. Rahman can only be regarded as a good win for Lewis because he KOd Lewis.