Mike Tyson is often considered to be one of the greatest boxers of all time and was the undisputed heavyweight champion in the late 80s. The boxer was active since the 1980s and was the youngest boxer to ever win the heavyweight title.
Tyson had the first knockout of his career in the 1990 match against underdog Buster Douglas, who was considered to be a terrible opponent for the superstar boxer. Douglas’ in against Tyson is still considered to be one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Despite the aftermath of the match, Mike Tyson claimed that he knocked out Douglas in the eighth round of the match.
The Biggest Upset In Boxing History
The story and background behind the infamous 1990 match between boxers Mike Tyson and James ‘Buster’ Douglas is as dramatic as the match itself. The former was considered to be the best back then and was the undisputed heavyweight champion for the past three years.
Despite personal woes and many professional issues between his managers and trainer, Mike Tyson was still going strong. Many considered the pairing of Tyson with an underdog like Buster Douglas to be unequal. Douglas too had many personal woes before the match, with his mother passing away a few days before the fight.
Mike Tyson was reportedly over-confident about the match and had reportedly partied the night before with singer Bobby Brown. In his one-man show Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, Tyson spoke about that time of his life and his reputation before the match,
“I was not training properly. I was beating everybody even though I was not training. I was supposed to be practicing abstinence. I didn’t even know how to say that word, how was I supposed to be practicing it?”
Tyson was knocked out for the first time in his career by the underdog who began dominating in the very first round. Douglas then became the undisputed heavyweight champion.
Mike Tyson Says That He Knocked Out Buster Douglas In A Round
The match between Mike Tyson and Buster Douglas is considered to be one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. In fact, many disputed Douglas’ win and he was only declared as the champion four days after the match. Protests were staged against the win, but Douglas was eventually declared the winner.
In his one-man show, Tyson also claimed that he had knocked out Douglas in the eighth round for a good thirteen seconds before he got back up. Tyson first called the match, ‘a bad day at the office’, before going on to talk about what was probably the lowest point of his career. He said,
“I didn’t think I was going to lose, but I don’t know how I thought I could have won…But, to be honest, I actually knocked Buster Douglas out in the eighth round. It was a thirteen-second count…Un-f*cking-lucky number.”
Despite calls for a rematch at the time, Tyson and Douglas never shared the ring again. Douglas had a terrible career after the biggest moment of his life, retiring after his next fight with Evander Holyfield.
