The Myth That Buster Douglas Was Only Good For One Fight

McCall was Tyson's sparring partner and he warned him to take Buster seriously.

Buster Douglas earned the right to challenge Tyson for the title because of his good performances leading up to the fight, he might not be remembered as a great, but his victory will always be considered as one of the best.

 

Douglas caught "Lightning In A Bottle" for that one night in Feb.1990...that's all. It's happened all thru boxing history...and it'll happen again! Nothing "mystical" about it...ask Andy Ruiz.

 

While i agree with the basic premise i temper it a bit.

Page had just lost his title and was on the way out at this stage despite his age. Having said that Douglas boxed extremely well and his better fundamentals beat loose talent.

Williams really hadn't done that much and never did. Overhyped.

Berbick had been beaten by Williams and was on the way out as a good contender. He won about 3 rounds vs Carl.

McCall was well short of prime.

I do however agree he was a solid contender who had shown excellent form and consistency. He was also extremely skilled and talented. In his one tough fight tho Tucker ground him down mentally which is a bit of a worry.

But between the excellent form you speak of, Tyson being off kilter and the stars aligning motivation wise he certainly rose to the occasion. I personally doubt whether he could have risen to this level on other nights if he was challenged hard. But your post is sound.

 

Oh, totally agree that Douglas wasn’t the fodder that some perceived him to be.

Re the Williams fight. Buster demonstrated a terrific jab vs Williams but William’s chin was also questionable.

In Tyson, Buster was dealing with a far superior chin - one that had to be methodically and patiently chipped away at without let up and with far less scope for error.

Though Douglas’’ weight was comparable to what he came in for Tyson, I think we saw Buster beginning to gas a bit which did let Williams back into the fight to some extent.

However, the not so granite chinned Williams was already damaged sufficiently for a tiring Douglas to still be capable of finishing him off.

Buster appeared to get a bit sloppier as the fight wore on - he also missed a couple of uppercuts that weren’t dissimilar to the misjudged uppercut that Holyfield countered.

For Tyson, I think Douglas was notably sharper, tighter, better conditioned, mixed his punches better and, was more consistently and evenly applied overall.

Against Tyson, we were also availed of a huge gut check that Buster not only passed with flying colours - but also came back from with a vengeance, and Busters stamina looked fine all the way to the finish.

Had Williams somehow held on for another 2-3 rounds, we might’ve witnessed a dramatic downturn on the part of an already tired Buster - similar to his relatively fast and sudden demise against Tucker.

 

Two things can be true at the same time:

1) Buster wasn't some hopeless, older, journeyman with over a dozen losses desperate for his shot at the title, he was #2 ranked 29 year old with only 4 losses. He did actually have a decent resume for a contender and he did have good skills such as a strong jab, combinations, lateral movement, etc seen in plenty of other fights.

2) Buster WAS inconsistent. Sometimes he was going life and death with guys like Tex Cobb, other times he was putting on a clinic against guys like Page. People weren't writing him off because he had no skill, talent, or resume to deserve a shot, it was a combination of Buster's incosnistency combined with Tyson's murderous undefeated streak clearing out the division and unifying the belts. The fact Tyson beat guys who beat Douglas also skewed the perception and people tend to use flawed A B C logic in sports.

 

Well he was great for only one fight and you have to admit, he never looked that good before or after Tyson.

 

Oh he showed some good efforts, but nothing like he did with Tyson.

 

Douglas actually had better resume than Ruddock, so I don't get why Ruddock is praised so much while Buster is underrated.

1) Douglas beat Tyson, while Ruddock got battered by Mike twice

2) Unlike Ruddock, whose ALL best wins came against washed up fighters, Douglas (even aside of Tyson) beat some fresh guys like McCall and Williams. Even the version of Page he beat was much younger and fresher than the one that faced Ruddock