How did Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson?

What?!!!! A fighter has excuses for a bad loss?! Unheard of.

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This. People quote stats of Tyson's low punch output like that had nothing to with Douglas putting his piston of a left jab in his face all night.

Douglas had a combined advantage in height, reach and weight that no quality fighter had enjoyed over Tyson before (well, perhaps Tubbs, but that extra weight was mostly fat) and he committed to his punches in a way that many was afraid to do against Mike, in fear of his counters. He had one of the best, perhaps the best, jab that Tyson faced during his whole career and he fought wholly without fear.

That could have something with Tyson not looking like his usual self.

 

I love that image of Mike with his mouthpiece backward and half hanging out of his mouth crawling around like a dog with a bone.

 

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In rds 2-5 against Thomas, Tyson isn't exactly sparkling with head movement and combos. Now swap the declining Thomas for Douglas as he was in Tokyo...

Also against Tucker and Smith, Tyson plodded pretty straight in with low output and mostly single punches for much of the fights. The difference there was that much less was coming back.

Yes, perhaps he could have set a higher pace against these men if he had felt the need, but the fact remains that even at what's seen as his peak, Tyson's best work only came in flashes. He never kept it up like, say, Frazier against Ali.

Tyson seems to be held up by some as a more explosive, two handed Frazier with better chin, or even a HW version of Duran, but he never showed the ability to keep up constant punching and pressure for a full fight like these guys did, and he certainly didn't have their ability as infighters.

 

Douglas had a great plan that Tyson couldn't figure out....he lead with hi s right hand all night. Really bothered Tyson and kept him on huus back foot. Took away Tyson's inside game...devastating left hook to the body and his right uppercut.

 

Either way, Buster busted Tyson that night and made history as one of the biggest upset in Boxing
It was Tyson's first loss and was never the same after then...

 

The fight went to a distance and Tyson started to be exhausted. Tyson didn't get used to fight anyone in a long distance. Besides, Douglas didn't show Tyson that he was afraid of his power and waiting to see Tyson getting exhausted.

 

His next four fights before prison was two first dound KO against decent/good opp. and two one-sided beatdowns of one of the other top contenders. I'm not sure even Biggs, Tubbs, Holmes and Spinks was a better sequence of results (seeing how Tubbs and Holmes weren't really in the prime of their careers).

 

I watched Tyson-Douglas again last night and was even more amazed than before by Buster's footwork. It's picture perfect for the first five rounds. Amazing seeing such a big man with such cultivated movement. Never seen anything like it, I think.

He makes it so hard for Tyson to set anything up, moving like that behind that jab.

 

If they'd fought 10 times, Buster probably only wins that one time.

It was the greatest performance of his career in the biggest fight of his career. You can't take it away from him.

But I can't think of any point in their parallel careers where Tyson was that sluggish and Buster was that good. Eight months later, Buster was a mess. Eight months earlier, Tyson was sharp as hell against Carl Williams and Buster was boxing tentatively and going 10 rounds with Oliver McCall.

Just the perfect storm on that particular night.

It's why they fight the fights.

 

The thing I find interesting about this fight is the question, would Tyson ever have been mentally prepared for this fight, even with the best intentions. Buster was a ridiculous underdog and Tyson had not one ounce of fear in him for this bout. Could he ever have imagined Douglas in the fight would be his toughest war ever, tooth and nail, despite nearly every single person in world believing Mike would squash him like a bug. there is no way Tyson could envisage what happened here in a million years, he was shocked by it. I think that shock plays a part, its a typical case of completely underestimating an opponent, getting hustled. it happens.

Therefore I wounder if Tyson would ever have won that 1990 bout, because it was an impossible scenario, Douglas became Ali, a monster that kicked Iron Mike's ass ten times over. That is something that an arrogant, over confident fighter would never believe. It sounds like an excuse for Tyson but think about it, didn't anyone see that coming?

I'm not saying a prepared Tyson would always win, I'm just asking the question, would Tyson ever have been up and prepared for another so called tomato can in 1990? It was a fight he was always destined to lose, in shape or not. he didn't see it coming and never would have.

 

Sure - but against nobodies. Soon as he fought Evander, he lost via TKO and then the biting. He then fought Lennox and lost via Ko again then lost to nobodies in DannyWilliams via KO and McBride TKO.
That's what I meant that he was never the same....

 

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Nobodies? Stewart was ranked and gave Holy a tough fight. Ruddock was probably ranked just behind Tyson as a challenger since obliterating Dokes.

If they were nobodies, so was just about everyone Tyson had fought up until then.

 

Caught Mike not at his best and boxed the fight of his life.
Buster was also a pretty good heavyweight . He was beating Tucker unti he quit. Beat Mccall .