Tyson/Buster: 25 years on, arguably the biggest shock in modern sports!

I've noticed that, he's lucky the referee didn't wave the fight off. It seems to happen regularly these days when I fighter gets up bang on the 10 count.

 

If you were in the know, it wasn't that much of a shock.The way Tyson was carrying on the last couple of years before this fight, it was going to happen at some time or another.

 

That's true. Quite frankly his prep for several fights leading up to Douglas was shocking, That was no secret. But as a pro athlete he had a responsibility to turn up in the best condition possible, & if he didn't, well that's his problem.

 

Two weeks later an equal shock happened when Derrike Cope won the Daytona 500 after Dale Earnhart blew a tire on the last lap. When Mike Joy interviewed Cope he started off with something like "James "Buster" Douglas....

 

I was 15. I remember I was still making a sandwich right before the bell rang to start the fight. My Dad said, "you better hurry up before the fights over". After each of the first 3 rounds we both said, he's doing pretty good so far, better than anyone else has done vs. Tyson. I even made another sandwich after round 3... I could still see the TV. After round 4 I thought maybe Douglas could win.

In round 8 I thought it was the beginning of the end for Douglas after he was dropped. Once round 9 started I knew he was fine though. About halfway thru round 9 it was pretty clear to us that Tyson was getting stopped.

It was very exciting to watch this live on TV.

 

I guess that's why he was a 42-1 favorite. Yes, Page dropped Tyson in sparring. Yes, Tyson took Douglas lightly but nobody except those close to Douglas felt Douglas had any kind of chance of winning.

I agree a lot of people felt at some point he'd catch an A$$ whooping but almost noone felt it was going to be that night.

Holyfield was set to make 12 million against Tyson in the summer, everyone assumed it was going to happen.