The 20th Anniversary of the Biggest Upset In Sports

Buster Douglas autographed this print memorializing the event

I’ll never forget the boxing match between Mike Tyson and James “Buster” Douglas. I was 8 years old and I was allowed to sleepover my friend’s house because him and his parents were really into boxing. At the time, February 11, 1990 to be precise, Mike Tyson was the most dominant boxer in the sport, and to add to the intrigue, he lived right up the road from me in Bernardsville, NJ. On the other side, though, was James “Buster” Douglas, a relatively unknown boxer who was only known for one thing; he lacked heart. So when boxing promoters suggested this matchup in 1989, everybody just knew it was going to be another walk in the park for Tyson. In fact, Buster Douglas was a 42:1 underdog

Background
Mike Tyson was the most dominant boxer of the late 1980s. He won his first 37 professional matches, 16 of them by KO, with 12 of those KOs in the first round! Buster Douglas, on the other hand, was no slouch, but he was not nearly as dominant as Tyson having only ever registered 6 KOs in his career. The expectation was that Douglas would show up to the fight and Tyson would promptly get another KO and another mark in the W column.

The Fight
Much to everyone’s surprised, Douglas came out and dominated early, using his 12-inch reach advantage to his um…advantage. It wasn’t a problem, though, everybody knew that Tyson would get his bearings and recover, but he never did. By the 5th round, with Douglas still dominating and know turnaround  for in sight, everybody Tyson was in trouble. Even if he did manage to last the entire match, there was no way that the judges would give the fight to him. Tyson fought his hardest, though, and managed to knock down Douglas in the 8th round. But Douglas got back up, and the match continued. In the 10th round Douglas did the unthinkable: he knocked down Mike Tyson. For the first time in Tyson’s career he was on the mat. I remember begging Tyson to get up, but the ref kept counting and he never got up. For the first time in his professional career, Tyson lost.

The Aftermath
Well, everybody knows what happened to Tyson. His life fell apart and he never won another big time match like this again. But whatever happened to Buster Douglas? Well, for 8 months, he was the most popular man in boxing, and it showed. Copies of the Nintendo boxing game Ring King flew off the shelves. And what was everybody’s favorite character name? Buster D. Unfortunately, when Douglas had the chance to defend his title in October 1990 against Evander Holyfield he returned to his quitting ways, giving up in the 3rd round and promptly retiring from the sport.

Enough blabbering on, though. I’m sure you want to see the fight (or at least part of it). Fast-forward to 7:00 to see the most unlikely KO in history:

You may also like:

1. On This Day in History: Cassius Clay vs. Sonny Liston On this day 45 years ago in Miami Beach, Cassius...
2. Today is…the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre The Chinese government may want to suppress it, but everybody...
3. So What Else Has Happened on July 20th? Everybody knows that on July 20, 1969 the first men...
4. 15 of the Biggest & Most Bizarre Parties in the World If there's one thing people do well, it's party....