BoxRec

"Douglas suffers severe injuries in this fight and has to retire"

25th October 1989

What happened that night?

Douglas suffered severe head injuries and had to retire.

Not much really.

Graham spent most of the fight with his hands dangling by his side and taunting douglas.Very cringeworthy stuff.

He really didn't mount much of an offense until the last few rounds.A very inexperienced Douglas had by this time tired himself out chasing Graham and was stopped when Herol landed some nice combos and dropped him a few times.

To me it seemed at the time as if Douglas had been stopped due to exhaustion more than anything else.Reminiscent of Finnegan's stoppage against Foster, only in a far less gruelling fight.

It was certainly not a brutal fight in the manner of Benn vs G-man.

Goz wrote:Douglas suffered severe head injuries and had to retire.

so youve just added the word "head" lol..... you mean as in Michael Watson kind of head injuries?

He had a blood clot removed, that most definitely saved his life.

Pretty sure he made a full recovery, and is involved in training now.

rod douglas made a 99% recovery and leads a normal life, he is a very lucky man...

Douglas was the only man to beat Nigel Benn between 1981 and 1989. He also won four ABA titles and was robbed in the Olympics. His people threw him in far too quickly with Bomber though, he was a hot young offensive lion prospect. He was supposed to be Benn's great rival, barring maybe Michale Nunn.

Douglas went pro at a bizarre time in his career - the year before the 1988 Olympics. He reached the quarter-finals of the 1984 Olympics, won Commonwealth gold in 1986 (licking Jeff Harding in the final), the ABA middleweight title in 1987 (licking Cornelius Carr) and looked all set for a medal in Seoul; Henry Maske won the middleweight gold beating Canada's Egerton Marcus in the final.
Douglas was certainly better than Marcus.
Instead, the Londoner went pro and fought nobodies up to Bomber. Mickey Duff, never gracious when his ability to 'move' a fighter failed him, blamed referee Billy Rafferty for the injury, which was a real cheap shot.
Bottom line is, Rod survived.

i've got the fight.

douglas does get worked over in the end.

herols lands quite a lot.

i've seen worse beatings though.