It was 20 years ago today, Buster Douglas shocked the world ...

(video of the KO)

That uppercut rocked him to sleep. What a perfect shot!

 

Fight was definitely on HBO. I was watching it in my living room. It was one of the few Tyson fights not on PPV, which also spoke to what an asswhipping this was supposed to be.

There's always been the claim that Douglas got a slow count, but he looked pretty much ready to get up at 9 whenever the ref got there. Looking at the tape, you can tell he was ready to go around 5 or 6, but took the full count to recover and burn time. Unless the ref pulled a WWE-esque fast count, he was getting up anyway.

 

Good thing they got that game out ASAP.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1138213/index.htm

 

I was working as a hotel pool lifeguard the night of the fight. Next to the pool was their catering room hosting some sort of party. All of a sudden, you hear the DJ announcing, "By the way, Mike Tyson LOST his fight tonight!" followed by a stunned silence, then a bunch of cheers.

One of our porters came around. I asked him if it was true. He told me that Tyson had fought horribly and got KOd.

I remember HBO having a replay of the fight a couple of days later and I taped it on the VCR and watched it. Even my mother, who was by no means a fight fan, had heard about it and watched the end of the fight.

It was so surreal to see Tyson, in his black trunks, sitting on the canvas trying to put his mouthpiece back in.

I still have the SI issue of Douglas wearing (I think) the IBF belt, with the headline, "ROCKY LIVES". That was another surreal picture.

There was also a great column at the back of that SI issue, although I don't remember who wrote it, that ripped on Don King for trying to have the result thrown out because of the 'slow count'.

 

I didn't watch it because I was in high school at the time and we didn't have cable.

I was so sure that Tyson had won that I was wondering why people were talking about the fight so much. Then I asked who won the fight and I remember another high school kid telling me "Douglas."

I remember thinking "WHAT?!"

In terms of one of the biggest non-upset upsets in sports history, the closest thing we've seen in recent years was Appalachian State "upsetting" Michigan in The Big House.

 

One of my favorite conspiracy theories is that King told Tyson to keep Douglas around for a few rounds, then he could finish him off. Problem was, after a few rounds, Tyson had been worn down by Douglas and could not defend himself properly or hurt the big Douglas.

I remember watching that fight live and remembering how boring it was. Back then you expected blood when Tyson fought. You expected a 20 second fight. You expected him to hit the other guy so hard that the only thing left on the canvas were the shoes.

Tyson didn't attack from the opening bell, and that shocked me. Looking back, I think he was told not to attack.

The venue had a few other championship bouts and they were always first round knockouts or quick fights. I remember hearing that the Japanese felt like the were not getting quality fights because they were so quick.

F Don King.

 

That's the conspiracy theory I believe. King wanted Tyson to keep Douglas around for at least four rounds and nobody was banking on Douglas being that ready for the fight or Tyson being that out of shape and fighting overseas, which can negatively impact guys as well.

I don't think the outcome was fixed, but something about that fight wasn't right.

Keep in mind, this was at the exact time when people were complaining that nobody wanted to pay for Tyson's fights because they were all over so early. I remember this as someone who paid $30 to watch the Spinks fight on closed circuit TV.

 

Yes. Sort of like a half fix.

Tyson was trying to win, but King's hand altered the ending.

 

I remember (vaguely, so who knows) announcers interviewing Holyfield pre-bout about him trying to set up a shot with Tyson. The general feeling was Holyfield was the great hope of beating Tyson.

 

I was a fiend on the SNES Riddick Bowe boxing. No fan-man special effect, sadly.

 

Most-perfect punch of all-time, at least in the non-LaGarrette Blount category ...

As for Tyson-Douglas, I was only 16 at the time so maybe I didn't see the cracks already appearing in Tyson's facade. But let me tell you, the Douglas win rocked my world as well as that of every sports fan I knew.

According to the SI story I linked above, Tyson was a 42-1 favorite at The Mirage (one of the few casinos that put a line on the fight), so I'm guessing anyone who says it was "not that great an upset" is engaging in revisionist history.

 

I was wondering if I was the only one who remembered that. IIRC, King and Tyson didn't give up the belts until four or five days later. Or at least didn't drop their protest until then.