Going into the fight, Mike Tyson was the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and was very popular at the time. He held the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. Despite several controversies that marred Tyson's profile at the time, such as his allegedly abusive relationship with Robin Givens, contractual battles between longtime manager Bill Cayton and promoter Don King, and Tyson's departure from longtime trainer Kevin Rooney,[2] Tyson was still dominant in the ring. He scored a 93-second knockout against Carl "The Truth" Williams in his previous fight. Most considered this fight to be a warm-up bout for Tyson before meeting up with then-undefeated number-one heavyweight contender Evander Holyfield (who was ringside for the fight).[2][3] Tyson was viewed as such a dominant champion that he was often considered the number-one fighter in the world pound-for-pound (including by Ring Magazine), a rarity for heavyweights.
Buster Douglas was ranked as the #7 heavyweight contender by Ring Magazine and had met with mixed success in his professional career up to that point. His previous title fight was against Tony Tucker in 1987, in which he was TKO'd in the 10th round. However, six consecutive wins since the Tucker fight—including victories over former world champion Trevor Berbick and future world champion Oliver McCall—gave him the opportunity to fight Tyson. In the time leading up to the fight, Douglas faced a number of personal setbacks, including the death of his mother, Lula Pearl, 23 days before the fight.[4][5] Additionally, the mother of his son had a severe kidney ailment, and he had contracted the flu on the day before the fight.[5]
HBO boxing analysts Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley expected to see "another 90-second annihilation." (When asked by a Japanese customs official how long he expected to be working in Japan, Ed Schuyler of the Associated Press replied, "Oh, about ninety seconds.") Instead of discussing Douglas's chances against Tyson, Merchant and Lampley compared their pets: Tyson had a white pitbull named "Duran" (after his idol Roberto Durán) while Douglas had a beagle named "Shakespeare." Merchant, after saying that "this fight is over before it begins or soon thereafter" and describing Douglas as "just another frozen tuna" from the Tokyo fish market, opined that "any prizefighter with a dog named Shakespeare can't be all-bad." In an interview given to HBO prior to the fight, Douglas told reporters that his favorite Shakespeare play was the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Lampley suggested that if Tyson were asked the same question (assuming he had read Shakespeare), he would choose something more bloody and violent, such as Henry the Fifth or Macbeth.[6]
Singer Bobby Brown wrote in his autobiography that he met with Tyson in Tokyo and the two partied extensively the night before the fight. Brown claims Tyson refused to go to sleep early for the fight, deeming Douglas "an amateur" he could beat "if I didn't sleep for five weeks".[7]
From the beginning of the fight, it was apparent that Douglas was not afraid. Douglas displayed a lot of spring in his body movement and was not cautious in letting his punches fly whenever he saw the opportunity to attack Tyson. He used his quick and accurate jab to prevent Tyson from getting inside, where Tyson was most dangerous. When Tyson tried to get inside, Douglas tied him up, moved away, or would immediately hit Tyson with multiple punches as Tyson came within Douglas' range. Early on, Douglas was more agile than Tyson and outlanded Tyson in exchanges. Douglas finished the second round with a snappy uppercut to Tyson's chin.[8]
Seeming to regain his form, Tyson landed a punishing left to the body that had Douglas look at his corner. After an ineffectual and lackluster third round, Tyson cornerman Jay Bright screamed at his fighter "Don't just stand there and look at him, you've gotta work!" Boxer "Sugar" Ray Leonard, at ringside doing commentary for HBO, noted Douglas' dominance with the jab and right hand and said Tyson was having one of those occasional days in the ring where "you just don't have it...things just don't click in".
Douglas would still dominate the middle rounds, although Tyson managed to land a few of his signature uppercuts. Tyson was wobbled by a chopping right during the fifth round. Soon, Tyson's left eye began to swell from Douglas' right jabs, preventing him from seeing his opponent's punches well.[8] Tyson's cornermen were caught unprepared; they were so confident Tyson would easily beat Douglas that they had not brought an endswell or ice packs, usually standard equipment for a fight. Instead, they filled a latex glove with ice water and held it on Tyson's eye between rounds. Aaron Snowell, Tyson's primary cornerman, at one point caught the chain from the identification badge hanging from his neck between the iced glove and Tyson's eye. Tyson winced in pain as Snowell moved dragging the chain from one side of his injured eye to the other. Confusion and panic grew in his corner as the fight went on. Despite Tyson's inability to execute an effective fight plan, his corner continued to give him the same advice between rounds to move his head, jab his way inside and deliver a right hand. In the eighth round -- a round Douglas dominated until the last few seconds -- HBO's Larry Merchant noted, "Douglas is asking of Tyson some questions he hasn't been asked before...in the last few rounds of a fight, you have to come back and win it."
Within the last ten seconds of the eighth round, Tyson, who had been backed onto the ropes, landed a big right uppercut that sent Douglas to the canvas. Although the knockdown timekeeper began when Douglas's backside touched the ring's surface, the referee was said to have started his own count behind by two beats. Douglas rose as the referee signaled nine, but the bell ended the round. In obvious annoyance at his own lapse, Douglas pounded his left fist on the mat.[8] Tyson promoter Don King would later argue the validity of the referee count in vain.[9]
In the ninth round, Tyson came out aggressively to try to end the fight and save his title, hoping that Douglas was still hurt from the knockdown. Douglas was able to fight off Tyson's attack and was able to close Tyson's eye completely. Both men traded punches before Douglas connected on a four-punch combination that staggered Tyson back to the ropes. With Tyson hurt along the ropes, Douglas closed in and unleashed a four-punch attack to try to knock Tyson out. Tyson withstood the punishment and barely survived the round.
In the tenth round, Tyson pushed forward, but he was still hurting from the accumulation of punishment he had absorbed throughout the match. As Tyson advanced, Douglas measured him with a few jabs before landing an uppercut that snapped Tyson's head upward, stopping Tyson in his tracks. As Tyson reeled back, Douglas immediately followed with four punches to the head, knocking Tyson down for the first time in his career. In a famous scene, Tyson fumbled for his mouthpiece on the canvas before sticking one end in his mouth with the other end hanging out. The champion attempted to make it back to his feet, but referee Octavio Meyran counted him out. Buster Douglas thus became the new undisputed heavyweight champion, engineering one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. The official scorecards through nine rounds were 87–86 for Tyson, 86–86, and 88–83 for Douglas.
During the post-fight interview, Douglas broke down in tears when asked why he was able to win this fight when no one thought he could. "Because of my mother...God bless her heart," said the emotional new champion.
Merchant concluded that it was the expulsion of Kevin Rooney, who still rooted for Tyson every time he watched him fight (despite their split), which led to the stunning knockout loss. Merchant said Tyson needed Rooney in much the same way that Muhammad Ali needed Angelo Dundee. Merchant speculated that with Rooney in his corner, Tyson would have managed to end the fight on his feet, and to change the tide of the fight, exactly as in the Tucker fight, after he was rocked in the first round but weathered the storm with Rooney's help and came back determined to win, outboxing his opponent.[6]Butch Lewis shared the same opinion, believing that after he got rid of Rooney, Tyson found himself in a situation where there was no one to enforce compliance with the training regimen and a normal daily routine, and tell him "Back on track, Mike!" when needed. So did Jerry Izenberg, who commented:[10] "They assemble a corner for that fight which looks like it was picked up out of the semi-finals of the Intercity Golden Gloves."
Aftermath and legacy
As a 42-1 underdog,[11] Douglas earned $1.3 million from the fight while Tyson got $6 million.[8]
Tyson's camp, led by Don King, immediately protested the result, claiming that Douglas had been given a long count by referee Octavio Meyran. The WBA and WBC initially agreed and suspended recognition of Douglas as champion, although the IBF immediately accepted that the result was valid.[12] After a public outcry and demands from boxing commissions around the world that they acknowledge Douglas as the champion, the protest was withdrawn and Douglas' win was recognised four days after the fight.[13][14] In spite of Douglas' inspired and dominant performance, a sizable number of boxing fans viewed the fight outcome as an aberration, leading to interest in a rematch.[15]
In an HBO studio interview with Merchant the following week, Douglas stated the protest and post-fight confusion ruined what should have been the best time of his life.
At the time of the fight, Don King was said to have been negotiating for Tyson's next fight to be in the fall in Berlin against former champion Greg Page, who had decked Tyson while sparring with him three weeks before the Douglas fight. A future Mike Tyson versus George Foreman fight to be promoted by the Sultan of Brunei was also shelved.[8]
Plans for a rematch fell through, so Douglas' first title defence was against No. 1 contender Evander Holyfield. An overweight Douglas, weighing 14.5 pounds (6.6kg) more than in the Tyson fight, was knocked out by Holyfield in the third round.[16] Douglas retired after the fight. Six years later, he launched a comeback after almost dying in a diabetic coma and won a few fights against journeyman opposition. He fought for the last time in 1999.[17] Despite rumours of a rematch with Tyson throughout the 1990s,[18][19][20] they never faced each other again.
Tyson would fight four more times after the Douglas fight before being convicted of raping beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington in 1991. Following his release from the Indiana Youth Center in 1995 he quickly regained the WBA and WBC world titles, before losing them to Holyfield and was never again a world champion. He fought on sporadically for another decade and lost in another title challenge against Lennox Lewis in 2002. He retired from boxing in 2005 after consecutive losses to journeymen.
Buster Douglas went down in sports lore as a prize fighter who defied the odds to pull off one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Among the honors was a cover photo on an issue of Sports Illustrated with the title "Rocky Lives!," after the popular film series about a similarly underestimated boxing hero. For Tyson, though he retained a menacing aura for years afterwards, "the mystique of the untouchable, invincible 'Baddest Man on the Planet' had been shattered."[21] Tyson himself knew as much, stating after he ended his career by losing to unheralded Kevin McBride in 2005, "My career has been over since 1990."[22] The fight is often ranked among the biggest upsets in sports history.[23][24][25][26]
Douglas's upset against Tyson is the inspiration for The Killers' song "Tyson vs Douglas" from their Wonderful Wonderful album. Singer songwriter Brandon Flowers used the childhood memory of watching the seemingly invincible Tyson lose as the motivation for a song that's about "me and my family, and the way I’m perceived by my kids. I don’t want them to see me go down like Tyson."[27] The song also features audio of the commentators for the fight.
The fight is referenced in a short film by Paradigm Studios when a boxer, who came out of retirement, made a promise to his dying son; the short film also references how Douglas made a promise to his dying mother that he would win.
In 1990, In Living Color made references to the fight in the "Three Champs and a Baby/Little Lady" sketches. In the first, Tyson prank calls Buster demanding a rematch, while in "Little Lady" Tyson uses an action figure to mock Douglas's loss to Holyfield.
Michael Gerard Tyson is an American professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005, and is scheduled to compete once again in 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time. He reigned as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990. Tyson won his first 19 professional fights by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. Claiming his first belt at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old, Tyson holds the record as the youngest boxer ever to win a heavyweight title. He was the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, as well as the only heavyweight to unify them in succession. The following year, Tyson became the lineal champion when he knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds of the first round. In 1990, Tyson was knocked out by underdog Buster Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
Lennox Claudius Lewis is a boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and held the undisputed championship. Holding dual British and Canadian citizenship, Lewis represented Canada as an amateur at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics; in the latter, he won a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division.
Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and was the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the "three belt era", a feat later surpassed by Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk, who became two-weight undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
James "Buster" Douglas is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1981 and 1999. He reigned as undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1990 after knocking out Mike Tyson. He also defeated other heavyweight world champions Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick, and Greg Page.
Donovan "Razor" Ruddock is a Jamaican-born Canadian former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 2001 and in 2015. He is known for his two fights against Mike Tyson in 1991, a fight against Lennox Lewis in 1992, and a fight with Tommy Morrison in 1995. Ruddock was also known for his exceptionally heavy punching; some of the best examples of his left hand and overall power was his knockouts of former WBA heavyweight champions James Smith in 1989, Michael Dokes in 1990, and Greg Page in 1992. His favored weapon at the ring proved to be a highly versatile half-hook, half-uppercut left-handed punch he called "The Smash" which accounted for the majority of his knockout wins -- it also happened to be his major downside throughout his career. Being a left-handed puncher fighting out of the orthodox stance, he didn't throw right handed punches during most knockout flurries.
Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield, billed as Finally, was a professional boxing match fought between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson for the WBA heavyweight championship on November 9, 1996, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. The bout was Tyson's first defence of the WBA title that he had won from Bruce Seldon on September 7 of that year.
Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks, billed as Once and For All, was a professional boxing match which took place on June 27, 1988. Both fighters were undefeated and each had a claim to being the legitimate heavyweight champion. At the time, Tyson held the belts of all three of the major sanctioning organizations while Spinks was The Ring and Lineal champion. The fight was held at the Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey U.S., it was at the time the richest fight in boxing history, grossing some $70 million, of which Tyson earned a record purse of around $22 million and Spinks $13.5 million. Tyson won the fight, knocking out Spinks in 91 seconds.
Buster Douglas vs. Evander Holyfield, billed as The Moment of Truth, was a professional boxing match contested on October 25, 1990, for the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight championships. The bout took place at the Mirage in Paradise, Nevada, USA and saw Douglas making the first defense of the titles he won from Mike Tyson in February 1990.
Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman, billed as The Battle of the Ages, was a professional boxing match contested on April 19, 1991 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight championships.
Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe was a professional boxing match that took place on November 13, 1992 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was contested for the undisputed world heavyweight championship, which consisted of the WBA, WBC, and IBF championships.
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis, billed as Undisputed, was a professional boxing match contested on March 13, 1999 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF undisputed heavyweight championship.
Mike Tyson vs. Tony Tubbs was a professional boxing match contested on March 21, 1988 for the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight championships.
Mike Tyson vs Frank Bruno was a professional boxing match contested on February 25, 1989 for the WBA, WBC, IBF and The Ring heavyweight championships.
Mike Tyson vs. Carl Williams was a professional boxing match contested on July 21, 1989, for WBA, WBC, IBF, and The Ring heavyweight championships.
Mike Tyson vs. Alex Stewart, billed as The Hard Way Back, was a professional boxing match contested on December 8, 1990. It was Tyson's second fight since losing the undisputed world heavyweight championship earlier in the year.
Mike Tyson vs. Buster Mathis Jr., billed as Presumption of Innocence, was a professional boxing match contested on December 16, 1995.
Evander Holyfield vs. Larry Holmes, billed as "Class of Champions", was a professional boxing match contested on June 19, 1992, for the undisputed heavyweight championship.
Riddick Bowe vs. Andrew Golota, billed as "Big Daddy's Home", was a professional boxing match contested on July 11, 1996. The fight was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City and was televised on HBO in the United States, and on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.
Mike Tyson vs. Henry Tillman, billed as The Road Back, was a professional boxing match contested on June 16, 1990.
Evander Holyfield vs. Seamus McDonagh was a professional boxing match contested on June 1, 1990 for the WBC continental Americas heavyweight title.
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