Twenty-five years ago it seemed as if Mike Tyson was invincible amongst his boxing peers. At the time Tyson was an undefeated phenomenon who defeated his previous opponents in malicious fashion something like the sport of Boxing had never seen before. Yes, there were great boxers before Tyson, but greats such as Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, and others never defeated their opposing competition without breaking a sweat. Tyson did just that and was arguably the most feared person on the planet at the time outside of Jason, Freddie Krueger, and Uncle Sam.
In 1990, in Tokyo it appeared that it would be a tune up bout to help Mike Tyson gain more international fame. Tyson, already an American superstar wanted to showcase his talents to the international crowd, and for himself and promoter Don King it made perfect sense. Their initial thought may have been– Tyson could have cashed in even more by becoming a global star rather than just a star state side. At the time James “Buster” Douglas was an unknown to some, and by betting odds being 42-1 it showed how much faith people had in Douglas winning the fight.
Many people crowned Tyson before the fight, but people forgot that he had to actually compete in the fight to continue his reign in the ring. Tyson would often intimidate his opponents, but the same could not be said for Douglas. Like Tyson, Douglas came from the streets, and he was just another person that had made it out of the inner-city streets. Douglas grew up in Columbus, Ohio in the Linden Area, Windsor Terrace to be exact, and like the mean streets of New York Tyson grew up on Douglas faced those same struggles being surrounded by crime, poverty, and false hope.
Tyson’s death stare didn’t faze Douglas, because it was nothing he had never seen before. At the time of the fight all of the pressure was on Tyson, and Douglas had to show up and collect a paycheck, but he did way more than that. Douglas had just lost his mother three weeks prior to the fight, and he dedicated the fight to his mother, which may have been one of few people that actually believed that he could defeat Tyson.
Douglas did just that has he upset the champ, by knocking him out in the 10th round. Being from Columbus, I always thought it was dope that two of the biggest upsets in sports history has a connection to my hometown. In 1990 Buster Douglas shocked the world and defeated Mike Tyson, and in 2003 The Ohio State Buckeyes defeated the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl to win the National Championship. Like Hurricanes in football, Tyson was never the same after failing to defeat someone from the state capital of O-H-I-O.
