Did Buster Douglas Kill the Heavyweight Division?

I've also been puzzled by the philosophy that boxing can only thrive if the heavyweight division is carrying the freight. Great boxing is great boxing ... and there's lots of it in the lower divisions these days.

 

I am saying the knockout of Mike Tyson caused the downfall of heavyweight boxing. The man who perpetuated the knockout was Buster Douglas, thus asking did Buster Douglas kill the heavyweight division. But Tyson relaxed going into the fight against Douglas and didn't train as hard for it. I guess you can also say that fight ruined Tyson's career (rape and other things nonwithstanding).

Heavyweight boxing is what gets the popularity, minus the recent Mayweather-De La Hoya fight. Who heard about Gatti-Ward when it happened?

 

To those that think Tyson is overrated, go back and watch his fights leading up to and including the Spinks fight. He was the most ferocious fighter I've ever seen, he scared me and I was just sitting in my living room. He knocked Berbick down 3 times with one punch. Devastating power.

In his prime he was and still is the best heavyweight since the pre-jail Ali. He fought who ever was available, he fought almost once a month at some points, without ducking anyone. The other fighters ducked him, frightened of going in against him.

After the Spinks fight he completely collapsed and became a sad joke, his invincible aura gone. No more movement, he simply tried to outslug opponents.

As far as Marciano goes, a great fighter that wouldn't even sniff the heavyweight title today, he was way too small at 189 pounds.

 

Tyson's left hook is still one of the top 3 punches in all of boxing history.

 

Tyson would have had loads of trouble with Holmes in his prime. Holmes was a fighter who couldn't be intimidated (Christ, he fought Shavers twice) and he would have dismantled Tyson with his jab and straight right. Certainly Tyson on his best day would have a puncher's chance against the elite heavies of all time, provided he put his punches together and didn't go in looking for the home run, something he resorted to for the post-jail part of his career.

As for Marciano (called by Red Smith - I think - the toughest man who ever stepped into a boxing ring), with a 68-inch reach (shortest all-time among heavyweight champs) he'd have a hard time dealing with light heavyweights and middleweights today.

 

Shavers could hit, but that's all he could do. Pre-Douglas Tyson was a perpetual motion machine, his head never still. Holmes would have had a hard time catching him with his jab, and he would have been on defense the entire fight. Even if he made it through 12, Tyson would have outpointed him as the aggressor, plus Holmes kept his hands down at his waist, Tyson would have caught him.

 

The whole game has gone downhill since Baer lost to Braddock.

 

Bringing it back to the old school days now are you?

 

Yeah, maybe, but I also saw Tyson get frustrated when the bigger guys like Bonecrusher Smith and Tony Tucker would negate his bull rush and he'd end up throwing one punch and holding on.

 

Did Tyson ever fight someone who was smaller than him? Tyson is a small guy comparatively to other heavyweights. Lewis-Tyson was a huge mismatch on paper and in the ring.

 

Marvis Frazier's the only one I can think of.

 

When Douglas knocked out Tyson, it seemed to me at the time that Douglas actually rescuscitated the sport for a while. I think people were starting to get sick of Tyson destroying every challenger, and the Douglas win threw the title picture wide open.

Of course, Douglas couldn't follow it up with his sorry showing against Holyfield, but there was definitely a buzz in boxing at that time that I hadn't experienced for a few years, even if it did eventually die out.

And to follow up on bigpern's thoughts on Cus D'Amato, I wonder how things would have been for Tyson if Jimmy Jacobs, whom he was very close to and who died shortly after Tyson first won the title, had lived for a few more years.