Did Buster Douglas Duck The Tyson Rematch?

It's probably good for Douglas that fight didn't happen.

 

Buster couldn't have given Tyson a rematch with Don King as the promoter.

Remember King and Suliman pulled guns out the day after the fight and hostages were taken
Tyson was the champ according to King even has Mike parrot that lame case.

 

I agree. The way it went down it gave Evander the credit for being more professional, and Mike had to work to get back to the top, yet he was never the same.

 

Nah. I dunno if tyson would have been he bigger purse at that point, but I doubt anytime someone accuses a boxer of ducking a huge payday, esp against a guy they beat up.

 

I always felt like we never got to see his prime. Mainly his apex. You're probably right though considering his age.

 

Well depends if there was a immediate rematch clause, which there was.

 

No there wasn’t.

 

just researched it, you are correct my friend, my apologies.

 

That’s why King tried to nullify the result to force one. Ended up in court and, of course, King had nothing upon which to stand. The WBC (aka WBKing) initially declared the result null but reversed their stance once they got wind of the public outcry.

Evander had also been mandatory for more than a year. He wasn’t willing to wait longer and Buster had zero interest of doing business with King again.

 

wouldn't say that, but very close.

 

The politics are much more complex than that.

Douglas resented teh fact the Don King tried to cheat him out of the title, with the whole long count farce.

In addition King openly disrespected Douglas in front of his corner team, and I have to assume that word of this made its way back to Douglas.

All this meant that when Holyfield's team approached Douglas, trying to secure the title shot, he was willing to listen.

On the question of the rematch clause, there was one, but it was legally porous enough for Douglas to get round it.

On a side note, Douglas's decision to withdraw from the Tyson fight, ended with him being sued by none other then Donald Trump.

Given Douglas's condition and preparation, it was probably a question of which of the top heavyweights got the fight.

Ultimately it was a fateful inflection point, because Tyson never again held the lineal title.

How different could history have been, if Tyson had got the shot instead of Holyfield.

 

Look at it like this, the champion gave him a shot and he beat him, fine. But now he owns the former champ a rematch because Tyson gave him a shot. So he should have rematched Tyson instead of running of to Evander