Did Buster Douglas just have Tysons number?

He had his number as long as he was in top condition the same way a younger Holmes would have. Tyson had trouble with an educated left hand.

 

Douglas had a game plan and he stuck that plan in Mike's face all night, his mom probably gave him that extra motivation to get it done.

 

Douglas falls into the same category as Bowe, Page,
Biggs and a host of other big men.
Great skills and athleticism, potential to be something
special. Let down by lackadaisical training and focus.
If Douglas had the dedication of Holyfield........
We probably would be debating where his
spot is in the top ten heavyweights in history.
He definitely had the ability to be a real nightmare
for Tyson at any point in his career if focused
and in shape.

 

Tyson would have been properly prepared for a rematch. Perhaps he turns things around, perhaps he doesn't. But the match will certainly look very different, especially if Mike has Rooney in his corner.
Upon taking control of Tyson's career, Don King fired everyone who had essentially worked with Tyson from the time he was a teenager, including his trainer, cornerman, and manager. Tyson had some incompetent fools in his corner in 1990.
You must remember that Tyson spent the weeks prior to the fight partying and ****ing the local escort services.
He was struggling during training sessions, and was even dropped by Greg Page in a sparring session.
During the fight with Douglas, Tyson was rarely making an effort to close the sizable gap against the much taller Douglas, whereas against other tall opponents with reasonable jabs, such as Tucker, Holmes, Tubbs, and Biggs, Tyson had slipped the jab and followed up with combos. We saw little or nothing of this against Douglas.
Like I said, a rematch would look very different, regardless of the outcome.
One more thing I'd like to add. Douglas was great boxer himself, not a bum, like some label him. But he simply did not have the desire to put his heart and body into boxing. The promise he made to his mother on her death bead spurred him on to train harder than ever.

 

No he didnt. Mike was going through the motions at this point in his career, he had more interest in partying and drugs.

 

First of all, what's that got to do with anything ?!? Holyfield and Douglas are two completely different boxers, with different assets and styles.
Second of all, Tyson was not the same animal after prison. He was just a head hunter, he had lost all the finesse, the incredible body movement and defense. He also did not have Kevin Rooney with him any more.
Third of all, Tyson lacked proper matches under his belt after prison, he needed more fights in order to be match sharp for Holyfield.
Forth, Holyfield was roided to the gills, which meant he had increased strength and incredible endurance, both in terms of taking punches and in terms of stamina.
Fifth, Holyfield was cheating and headbutting.
Sixth, Tyson didn't actually loose that match. He just snapped due to the headbutting. We don't know how the match would have gone down if not for that.

 

I think Douglas

a) was near FOTC-Frazier motivated to beat Mike due to his mother and

b) was lucky enough to get a Mike who was DEFINITELY not Rooney-level, whether due to dope, booze, girls, or a combination of any and all.

Do I think Mike could have beat any other heavy in the world that night? To be honest, no. Pretty sure JUST that night Holy would have had him, and perhaps (getting ready for the onslaught) even big George. He was NOT the Mike who beat the hell out of Spinks...not sure he was even the same guy who had trouble trashing Bruno.

I await the tirade regarding the George assertion.

 

The last time I watched the Douglas - Tyson fight, a few months back, I took away that while Douglas fought an extraordinarily good fight, Tyson fought horribly. I suspect that in an immediate rematch, the way Douglas reacted to his instant stardom and Tyson regaining some semblance of focus, we would've seen a different outcome.

 

Douglas would always pose Tyson problems, whether he would always beat him remains unknown.

 

I think Mike would have done better...but he never really did too great rematching people he got whacked out by. The Holy rematch was pretty obviously going bad for him.

I think Douglas would have suffered another kd, but won at least a majority decision.

Even 1990 Douglas would have been knocked cold against Rooney Tyson imo.

 

I honestly think a really big factor was that Douglas was fighting as often as Tyson was. Buster was also one of the very few Tyson opponents who had beat a lot of live opponents in his most recent fights.

Technically Douglas had a plan, Tyson just could not adjust to that kind of competition. Buster was prepared enough to answer everything Mike was going to do.

 

I see your point, but how many rematches did Tyson have? Just Ruddock and Holyfield as I can recall. Would Tyson have imploded against Douglas if Buster had fought as effectively as in Tokyo? Maybe, maybe not. In light of Douglas' reaction to his fame and subsequent crash landing in his fight against Holyfield, along with Tyson's performances against (ahem) Tillman and Stewart that same year, I think Tyson would've taken the rematch. Maybe even in spectacular fashion.

 

I think it was just a perfect storm of factors which led to that upset. You had one guy who showed up to give the absolute best performance of his career while another came and gave his worst. Would Douglas have always beaten Tyson ? Perhaps. But I’ve never believed that the two guys who met in the ring in Tokyo In February of 1990 were the regular representations of either fighter.