Buster Douglas’ shock treatment exposed a great lie about Mike Tyson
The unpredictability of boxing: it’s what drags us back every time, encouraging us to believe we will see drama, excitement, and an injection of a thrill that might not be so obvious in our own lives, day-to-day.
Twenty four years ago in Tokyo, James “Buster” Douglas gave the world all the drama and excitement it could handle (and them some) when he knocked out Mike Tyson in the 10th round of a fight that has come to be regarded as the biggest upset in the history of boxing.
But how truly shocking was it?
It shocked nearly everyone at the time: the fight writers, the lone Las Vegas bookmaker who made Douglas a 42-1 underdog, the promoter Don King, and it seemed to shock the so-called “invincible” Tyson.
Douglas said he always expected to win; that’s true only if you believe in hope as an expression of unshakable conviction. Whether he truly believed he can beat the so-called “baddest man on the planet” is unknown. While the odds might have been underestimating the chances of the skilled heavyweight, Buster was still a locked-down underdog.
Buster had his own issues. His wife had just left him, the people around him didn’t think he had a prayer. Then, three weeks before the fight, his mother died from a heart attack. These were real tragedies, rather than the prospect of a sporting one in the ring, that inspired Douglas to give the very best he could on the biggest night of his life. It was sport, again, providing a stage for heroism, which is why many fighters fight.
But Tyson was 37-0 with 33 KOs, having not defeated one opponent of legit quality. His win over a 38-year-old Larry Holmes was the closest thing to a quality win, but it was still far from the definition of what you would consider quality.
What was not so apparent then but became clear in the tumult that followed was the fact that Mike was also suffering away from the ring. He was critically underdone, physically and mentally.
In the hours before the fight, on February 11, 1990. Tyson sat in his hotel room, watching martial arts on TV, listening to his flunkies, as he had done all his life. He was also wrestling with a perpetual fondness for indiscriminate sex, whisky and other stimulants.
Tyson’s life had become a rolling catastrophe. His wife had publicly humiliated him on national television then left him. Cus D’Amato, had died. Don King was his master. The psychological traumas of his childhood, that had lain dormant for years, now gathered again to drain his resolve.
Tyson was told to believe he was the “baddest man on the planet”. He was not. He was the biggest and best bully on the planet. And his self-loathing exposed the great lie as Douglas recovered from a withering uppercut and knockdown in the eighth round…to batter the champion into one of boxing’s most ignominious falls in round 10.
Tyson has left us with many images: from terrifying to vulnerable. But none matches for the picture of his groping for his mouthpiece on the canvas in the final seconds of his first reign, his eyes glazed, his powerful body electrocuted into baby-like clumsiness as he was down on all-fours.
In truth, this was not so much a classic upset as an accidental collision of two lives, two fighters with their own burdens, handling them in entirely different ways. It was an aberration.
Douglas would surrender the title to Evander Holyfield eight months later and be remembered as a curiosity rather than a great champion, much as James J Braddock (the original “Cinderella Man”, would be remembered after beating Max Baer to win the title in 1936, then losing it to Joe Louis in his first defense two years later). Braddock went on to make good money in the construction business.
Twenty-four years on from Tokyo, Tyson recycles his legend on the celebrity dinner and stand-up circuits. Holyfield still waits for one last crack at glory while making appearances on reality TV. And Douglas, just like Braddock, settles down to make some money in property, in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
He might just have turned out the most content of them all.