Talk:Mike Tyson vs. James (Buster) Douglas

Wow! I'm amazed that no one has added any comments about this fight. I find myself needing to watch my DVD of the bout once a year or so. There are three key things to be learned by watching this fight.

The first of these is that Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant are perhaps the two worst boxing commentators ever to be handed microphones. Remember that at the time this fight occurred it was considered to be, at the very least, the biggest upset in the history of the heavyweight division. The less conservative among us often point to it as the biggest upset in the history of the sport, and one or two have called it the biggest since David took out Goliath.

Considering that, I've always found Lampley's call of the knockdown ("and down goes Tyson") the single most anti-climactic sporting call ever. I often wonder what would have happened if Marv Albert, for example, had gotten the HBO gig instead of Lampley. I remember hearing him call fights for NBC back in the 80's which were probably good fights, but after hearing Marv flip out in his call thereof, I recall them as great fights. If he'd done the Tyson-Douglas fight, he probably would not have survived, stroking out before Octavio Meyran had even reached the count of three.

Only slightly worse is anything Larry Merchant says ever. I'm not sure, as I don't have access to his medical records, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he is mildly retarded. His first pearl of wisdom after Tyson was counted out..."This makes Cinderella seem like a sad story." What the hell is that? Is that supposed to be witty? It's just stupid. I'd have rather heard him just say "Holy Crap!" ten or eleven times. In context, THAT would have been clever.

The second lesson to be learned here is that Mike Tyson, in spite of what Sugar Ray Leonard said, was sunk the minute he cut Kevin Rooney loose. (Leonard had taken a lot of heat for dumping legendary trainer Angelo Dundee, and used Tyson's decision to legitimize his own). I mean, for crying out loud! His corner didn't even have an Endswell, the seminal cornerman's tool for reducing swelling, dealing with Tyson's every enlarging eye by cooling it slightly with their own ingenious invention: "Ice in a condom."

Finally there is the lesson that all fighters after Douglas who were successful against Tyson learned from this fight: if you get Iron Mike in trouble, don't stop to admire your work. Keep pressuring him, and eventually he will crumble.

Douglas revealed Tyson as a patently flawed slugger. Certainly better than 99% of the heavyweight crop at the time, Mike couldn't handle anyone who could apply constant pressure (i.e. Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis).