re: What was it like when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson?

Back in those days, I had subscriptions to both Sport magazine and Inside Sports.
The Monday after the fight, one of those magazines arrived in the mail, with an article titled "How to Beat Mike Tyson", or something similar.

It broke down how the guy to beat Tyson would have to be 6'3" or taller, calling him the Tall Man. He'd have to have a strong punch, and especially a strong jab, and a strong jaw, because he'd get tagged by Tyson, and might have to come off the canvas.
It said the Tall man would have to take the fight into the later rounds, because Tyson wasn't used to that.
Basically, broke down almost exactly what happened in the fight, and the article, as usual in the days of monthly magazines, had to be written months in advance.
It was one of the most amazing things I've ever read, given the timing.

dive? No.

He got exposed. He was never feared the same after that nor did he fight the same.

It's like Connors when Ashe beat him at Wimbledon. Connors had the same aura, struck fear in opponents (maybe not Borg) every time he walked on the Court and why not, he was wiping the courts with everyone. Then Ashe dinked and dunked him to the win. Suddenly everyone saw he could be beat and they weren't scared anymore and played like it.

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It was a shock but most everyone I knew chalked it up to Tyson being distracted/out of shape. Nobody really believed Buster Douglas was better than Tyson.

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Same here. Absolute shock. After that night in Tokyo, the most accomplished fighter that Tyson ever defeated was a 35 year old Frank Bruno.

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I don’t recall—was the Douglas fight after he got out of jail?

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Before

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The Monday after the fight, one of those magazines arrived in the mail, with an article titled "How to Beat Mike Tyson", or something similar.

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I remember that article. They interviewed Angelo Dundee if I'm not mistaken. I remember thinking the article was bullshite.

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His corner had no cold press. They were throwing tap water on his swells between rounds.

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Filled up a glove with cold water, definitely didn't work.

Buster definitely got a long count. Tyson had lost "his way", among plenty of other stuff. Once Buster actually got up and the fight was to continue, Tyson was probably not used to dudes getting off the canvas. Then Buster started wailing on Tyson and the man, the myth, the legend, was eventually KO'd in Tokyo. I'll never forget getting the news on sportscenter. Complete shock. Gotta be right at the top of upsets in sports history.

it was surreal.

Notice how quiet the crowd was when he was knocked out. American crowd would've gone nuts

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Nope. It's a 10 count, not ten seconds. That's why Tyson and King lost the appeal. Counts are rarely aligned to actual time. You have to beat the count, not a stopwatch.

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I’m not saying you’re wrong. But I remember watching it and we all thought he counted fast for Tyson and slow for Buster. And I seem to remember seeing replays that backed that up. The counts definitely weren’t even.

I was working in the hospital that night and forgot the fight was taking place.

We were all in the doctors lounge and one of the anesthesiologists came in yelling “Tyson got knocked out! Tyson got knocked out!”

I seriously did not believe him. His brother was watching it and he put him on the phone and I still did not believe it.

I did not believe it until I saw the images of Mike on the mat pawing his glove around looking confused.

He is my favorite fighter of all time. My dad got me into boxing because he absolutely loved Sugar Ray Leonard.

Tyson is still the one athlete that I would love to meet today. I never thought anyone could beat him.

If you asked me to choose that Buster won fair and square vs Mike took a dive for the extra money - I would pick the dive.

He was just such a machine in his prime.