![]() It wasn’t that the public didn’t give Douglas much of a chance, he was given no chance at all. He was simply that dominant.Įnter one James “Buster” Douglas, a talented, if not particularly focused, heavyweight who flew to Japan to face Tyson in Tokyo with greater than 40-1 odds against him. Still, no one – no one – expected Tyson to lose a fight anytime in the near future. By 1990, Tyson was already well into showing public signs of the dysfunctional behavior he would soon become notorious for. When he hit a man, it seemed like a piece of the man was being removed from his body. Tyson didn’t beat opponents, he went through them. It’s said that Michael Spinks, his biggest, most esteemed opponent at the time, was essentially frozen stiff for the few seconds it took Tyson to mop the floor with him in their 1988 heavyweight title bout. There was good reason for this, aside from the fact that the world wasn’t as fractious and niche centric as it is in 2020. Along with basketball great Michael Jordan, Tyson transcended sports. It may seem impossible to get one’s head around the fact that Tyson was as famous in his prime as Donald Trump, Barak Obama, and the Queen of England are today, but there it is. Not just a famous figure in the sport’s world, but a national figure – scratch that – an INTERNATIONAL figure, one as well known as the most famous world leaders and entertainment icons. Back then, in the dawn of the 1990s, an athlete could be a celebrity. It really has been a long time, so long that it’s difficult to imagine today’s young boxing fans grasping what a big deal it was. If we were to go back thirty years beyond the Tyson-Douglas fight, Muhammad Ali – then Cassius Clay – wouldn’t have even turned pro yet. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around the fact that Tyson-Douglas, perhaps the greatest upset in the history of organized sports, went down thirty years ago on this date.
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