More than once, his handlers complained he just didn't have his heart in it. I guess I'll have to pencil him in some time next week.''ĭouglas was joking, but his sudden shift in fortune is anything but laughable.ĭouglas is a man who never before even demonstrated a passion for boxing. ``Will I have time to meet him? I don't know. ``The president called to say he wants to shake my hand,'' said Douglas, trying to relax in the small ranch-style home of his manager. A Las Vegas hotel and casino offered him $5 million - $4 million more than he earned against Tyson - to spend five nights there, walking through the game rooms and signing autographs and, well, just being seen. the next.''ĭouglas, has appeared on ``Late Night With David Letterman'' and Johnny Carson.

``He was James `Buster' Douglas one day,'' said his manager, John Johnson. With his shocking upset over Mike Tyson last Sunday in Tokyo, Douglas went from stiff to heavyweight champion in about 30 minutes. The fight lasted till the eleventh round when the referee, convinced that Tyson could not take any more punishments, stopped it handing over a technical victory to Holyfield.COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the history of the working class, no one has revised his job resume more dramatically than James ``Buster'' Douglas. It was Tyson’s WBA Heavyweight title defense after taking it from Bruce Seldon in September of that year. Evander Holyfield I, Novem– The bout was labeled ‘Finally’. On November 9, 1996, Mike Tyson faced his second defeat. By August 1995, he was back in the ring, and the following year, on March 16, 1996, he once again became the WBC Heavyweight champion. The Desiree Washington case resulted in him receiving a prison sentence. His personal life also started grabbing headlines. Many believe the loss at Tokyo Dome in 1990 marked Mike Tyson’s downfall. Eventually, he got some sleep …” Other famous losses of Mike Tyson We partied, and I was trying to tell him to get some sleep. There must have been two dozen girls in the room with me and Mike. We partied like really, really, really hard. The opinion has been shared by other personalities such as promoter Butch Lewis and sports journalist Jerry Izenberg who, in the documentary Mike Tyson – The Fallen Champ, famously remarked about Tyson’s new corner, “ They assemble a corner for that fight which looks like it was picked up out of the semi-finals of the Intercity Golden Gloves.”Īccording to an article published on Marca, in an interview, Brown revealed, “ We used to do crazy sh*t…but there was a time when we partied in Japan right before his fight with Buster Douglas.

However, they went their separate ways after the fight against former champion Michael Spinks in 1988.

The trainer who took over Tyson’s training after Cus D’Amato passed away in 1985 has long been accredited with his incredible success. According to HBO’s analyst and well-acclaimed sportswriter Larry Merchant, the primary reason for Mike Tyson’s lackadaisical performance in Tokyo Dome is parting ways with long-time trainer Kevin Rooney. On the other hand, two familiar narratives often come up as reasons for his loss. After the fight, when asked for reasons for his win, Douglas replied, “ Because of my mother … God bless her heart,” as reported by nzherald. However, the setback, especially his mother’s loss, instead of sending him down the cliff, reeled him back in. If it was not enough, his son’s mother had suffered from a severe kidney problem, and he ran flu just a day before the battle. His mother, Lula Pearl, had passed away some twenty-three days before the fight. So what could have been the reason behind ‘Iron’ Mike’s terrible loss to James ‘Buster’ Douglas? What went wrong that day on February 11 at Tokyo Dome?ĭouglas, who has had a mixed-bag career till then, was going through some personal tragedies. The man, till then considered unbeatable, finally met his match and lost. It was one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing.

James buster douglas vs mike tyson