Why there were never rematch between Tyson and Douglas?

Douglas got smashed by Holyfield next fight and retired for 6 years whilst Tyson went to jail a bit over a year later.

 

IIRC, Tyson's camp wanted a rematch, but Douglas opted to defend against Holyfield rather than deal with Don King again; he put up a frankly uninspired effort, got KO'd, walked away $24 million richer and retired shortly afterwards. That was pretty much the end of his career - at some point years later, maybe a case could have been made for another bout, but by then both fighters had lost their marquee appeal.

 

Las Vegas Billionaire Steve Wynn fronted the money for that fight and took care of all promotions and arrangements. Every other promoter and manager in boxing was furious because none of them got a cut. It was the best thing that ever happened to Douglas because he was paid 25 million dollars ( about the equivalent of 60 million today ) and got to keep most of it.

 

Their careers never crossed paths again.

 

Douglas choose to fight holy field instead. I m not sure and wouldn't like to speculate why Douglasdidnt rematch tyson straight away. Perhaps he was that pissed off at Don King s snakey moves to get Douglas stripped of the belt s that he thought screw u. And decided to take the holy field route? I would have felt very much like doing that. Tyson been in with King and his alphabet boys came across as total nobs

 

It was a smart move.

Wynn was smart, too. He knew he controlled the venue so could put the fight together. Douglas's manager wasn't a dummy, either.

I am surprised, though, if King didn't have options on Douglas. Maybe he thought Douglas had not shot against Tyson so failed to do so.

 

I don't remember how King got omitted from the promotion of that fight. Holyfield certainly wasn't under the umbrella of DK productions as he was exclusively managed and promoted by the Duvas. But yes it was a smart move and the best thing that ever happened to Buster.

 

Jail, in a word.

 

Not fully true.

They were scheduled to meet in '99-00 I believe but Douglas lost to Savarese who then fought Tyson instead and got stopped in one round.

Had Douglas beaten Savarese we would have seen the rematch.

I think Savarese even mention this in his pre fight comments where he was mocking Tyson because he's lost to a guy Savarese had beaten.

 

The other thing was, as per the contract I believe it said whoever wins Tyson Douglas (which was Tyson in nearly everyone's eyes) he would have to fight Holyfield in his next fight.

There was no rematch clause because nobody ever thought Tyson would need one against a 'bum' like Douglas. I believe this is what led Lewis to making sure all of his fights had a rematch clause in them? I could be wrong.

 

Hence their careers never crossed paths again.

 

Azzer is right. Tyson and Douglas were being positioned to fight after Tyson got suspended after the rematch with Holyfield.

It was in 1998, actually. And if Tyson and Douglas had rematched in Tyson's first fight back after the Holyfield DQ, that would've been a huge PPV.

But Savarese wasn't supposed to be the original opponent for Douglas in what was considered a "tuneup" before Buster fought Tyson again. Roy Jones, the WBC light heavyweight champ, was supposed to fight Buster Douglas. Both sides agreed. It was supposed to be an HBO PPV. HBO wanted it. But Jones backed out because his father convinced him that Douglas was too big and too strong.

That's the time when the WBC agreed to stage a vacant title fight (for Jones' belt) between Michael Nunn and Gracciano Rocchigiani, which Rocchigiani won. And then Jones decided he was going to stay at light heavy. So the WBC decided to recognize him again. In the meantime, Jones fought Virgil Hill in a non-title fight. Rocchigiani and Jones were supposed to fight but that got called off. Then Rocchigiani sued the WBC and the org filed for bankruptcy.

So it was a huge mess.

Douglas lost to Savarese. We never saw a Tyson-Douglas rematch. Jones was ridiculed for most of his light heavy reign for not fighting better comp. Plenty of boxing history changed on that decision by Roy Jones (or the decision of his dad, basically).

Had Roy Jones fought Buster Douglas, I've always wondered if he'd have won. Or if Douglas would've beaten Jones and gone on to fight Tyson again.

 

Long story short, Tyson and Douglas never rematched because of Roy Jones Sr. (As weird as that sounds.)

 

In my opinion after Rooney Tyson's management didn't care Mike's legacy considering after
the Tyson fight Douglas' boxing future has collapsed he looked like an ideal Tyson victim.