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

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Steak Snabler, Feb 11, 2010.

  1. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    damn, you're right.

    Tyson-Holyfield I was 11/9/96 (same night as Alexander)
    Tyson-Holyfield II (the ear bite) was 6/28/97

    Something else big happened the night of the ear bite. I just don't remember what it was.
     
  2. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    I remember watching the fight on the fuzz of HBO. I was grounded from the car that night, so I had to stay home. Glad I did. I remember more talking about the fight the next Monday at school. There was this one guy who was a big boxing fan. One of those kids who wasn't in my close circle of friends, but a cool guy to hang around during lunch. He re-enactetd the fight blow-by-blow, and it was funny to watch him and his heavyweight frame jump around describing the fight. Two weeks later, he was diagnosed with lukemia, and died just before summer break. Everytime I think of Tyson/Douglas, I think of him, and his discription of what happened.
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I would definitely say it was the biggest sports shocker of my lifetime.
     
  4. Rumpleforeskin

    Rumpleforeskin Active Member

    [​IMG]
     
  5. CHETtheJET

    CHETtheJET Member

    the fight was held in the Tokyo Dome (home of the giants). japan had all the money back then. The Dome was one year old, the previous April (?) there was a gala opening week for the Dome - the Rolling Stones played one night, the Youmuri Giants played an exhibition game, and the Tyson fight - his first in Japan. The fight was a huge event, sold out of course - 45,000 or so Japanese paying premium prices and it was over in 20 seconds. The mood was kind of dour, all this hoopla and over in 20 seconds, empty the dome.

    So, about a year later, Tyson comes back for another huge payday. This time the crowd stayed away and watched it on TV. So I can kind of believe that maybe King had told Tyson to carry the tomato can for a few rounds. I was at the fight, the crowd was about 15k.
     
  6. CHETtheJET

    CHETtheJET Member

    As I said I was at the fight. Out late with some buddies on the eve of the fight we made a pact to wake up sunday morning, scalp and attend. the fight was around 11am to shown sat. night back in the states. I was the only one in our crew to wake up and make it to the Dome. First hint something's wrong with attendance was the scalpers getting killed. Looking for a ducket, I almost got overrun by scalpers. the Japanese weren't about to shell out for another 20 second mauling and it was on national TV. I score a 30,000 yen ($250 or so) ticket for about 40 bucks. Go inside for the prelim and there's nobody in the place - feels like a last place game between two very bad baseball teams. Maybe 10k spread around the building, grew to about 15k when Tyson went on. My seats are about 10 rows behind first base. I move a little higher, maybe another ten rows for a better angle of the action which is on 2nd base. I spread out over 5 seats - their is nobody within 10 yards of me, grab a tall sapporo beer (how my doing, hung over, a prize fight for 40 bucks about to go on 50 yards in front of me, and I'm nursing a tall beer - ah, youth). I remember Trump getting announced - remember he was a big deal too back then. I'm just there to be able to tell my kids someday that I went to a prize fight. As we all know, an actual fight breaks out. By the 3rd round you could tell something was in the air. Grab two big Sapporo's. I could actually hear the blows I was that close and the dome that empty. Mayhem ensues when Tyson doesn't get up. The ring is crazy. After the fight, I run up to concessions, buy half a dozen fight posters for about 10 bucks each. Sold them on ebay at average cost of around 125. Still have one left, framed. My one and only prize fight, but boy did I pick a dandy.
     
  7. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    Thought I was going to have to wait another month to see that pic. Thanks.
     
  8. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    One of the things I remember most vividly was reading the SI story about the fight. The story specifically addressed the "slow count" issue by reporting that by the referee's count of six, Douglas was eyeing him closely. If that had been the count of eight, Douglas could have gotten up in time.

    Watching that knockout of Tyson, there's no way in Hell that was a fast count.
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    I watched the fight on HBO when it was on. Hardly ever did that, but it was a Saturday night and I had no life. I remember coming downstairs to watch it with my dad, and about 10 minutes before it was to start I jokingly asked "Is it over yet?" Until Tyson went down, I never really believed he'd lose.
    The next week, our wood shop teacher brought in a tape and showed it in class. He even rewound it on the Douglas knockdown to check for the slow count.
     
  10. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Not even in the same time zone as US over Russia in hockey.
     
  11. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Agreed. Even though Douglas was a stiff before the fight and returned to being a stiff the night he lost his crown, he was still a professional fighter. A non-descript one, sure, but still a professional fighter.

    The USA beating the Soviets in hockey for the right to advance to the gold medal game is the greatest upset in sports history. Not even remotely up for discussion. It was a bunch of college kids with limited experience even compared to their Canadian agemates versus a team of professionals.

    Even Appalachian State beating Michigan in Michigan wasn't as big an upset as USA-USSR in hockey. In THAT case, it was a damn good Division I-AA team that had some athletes who probably could have started on many good Division I-A school football teams facing a vastly overrated Michigan team. Having said that, a team from I-AA that was expected to be road kill going in and beating a storied program that went into the game with the No. 5 ranking was still huge, and it was still historic.

    Don't get me wrong. Buster Douglas completely owning Mike Tyson was a huge upset. It just doesn't compare to The Miracle On Ice.
     
  12. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    1960 is right there with 1980:

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/the_original_miracle_on_ice/

    http://www.forgottenmiracle.com/watch-the-trailer/
     
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