This. Plus a combination of boxing still being pretty big in the late 80s. Tyson fights were absolute must-see viewing. Even in our broke high school/college days - we always found a way to see the fight.

There are overdogs you root against. And then there are overdogs that are so over the top you root for them just to see the spectacle. Tyson was like that. I didn't get HBO that month because I thought Douglass had a chance. I just wanted to see the spectacle.

David Letterman featured the "Marvis Frazier Egg Timer" in one of his spoof product segments.

I remember being worried he was going to kill someone in the ring.

Edit: Berbick man. These are bringing back some memories.

Edit edit: "Man, your brother's fighting Mike Tyson? There's gotta be an easier way he can make a million dollars." - what a quote

Douglass was clearly listening to the ref and could have gotten up sooner.

The biggest thing that stands out to me on rewatch is how absolutely awful the refereeing is in this fight. He does a terrible job positioning himself, doesn't break them well and refusing to address them punching after the break. Just a really **** job all around. The long count is a nothing burger though, refs count and Buster beat the count

I assumed he meant Tyson and screwed up.

He'd still be wrong but it'd be less of a lol

Can we be honest, Tyson didn’t train for the fight, had to go across the continent and didn’t he get some STD that week too. If Tyson actually trained and prepared he would have destroyed Buster Douglas.

Hell naw, if he didn't that's on him. I don't think he beats Buster on this night even if he did after the trainer/Don King whatever change.

1 thing that stood out to me was opponents that didn't run from Tyson and closed down space on him typically did well, tagging him as he comes in. His body and head movement really went downhill after giving Rooney the boot imo, before that it was like watching a surgical piece of art robot dismantle people.

Tyson was good, but he didn't beat anybody of note. No one. Lets see how he'd do in the era of Ali, Foreman, and Frazier.

Firing Rooney was probably the biggest thing that led to his downfall. He looked great vs. Spinks and fired Rooney shortly after. Watch his next fight vs. Bruno. You can already tell his skills were diminished and he turned into a headhunter with worse defense.

The huge layoffs probably hurt him a ton too. He had so many fights his first 3 years and was a well oiled machine. He only had 2 fights the entire year before Douglas which gave him too much free time to get complacent. I think he even commented on it himself that Don King gave him too much freedom and wasn't keeping him busy enough.

Mike Tyson might be the most simultaneously overrated (by casuals) and underrated (by hardcores) boxer ever.

Exhibit A: first round starts around 2:53. the KO sequence starts around 4:20 with the body shots/upper cut combo. the rest is straight out of the Matrix.

Tyson's autobiography is an absolutely fascinating read. He gives the backstory behind every major fight and insight into what so many of the other fighters of his era were like.

Of course, Tyson didn't train for the Douglas fight. But in the weeks leading up to the fight, Tyson's hangers on were warning him that they were seeing Douglas out running hard constantly and he looked in great shape. Tyson, naturally, blew off the information.

Tyson wrote in his book that Maris Frazier was too nice a guy to be involved in a scummy business like boxing and that Marvis was only fighting to impress Smokin' Joe.

Tyson wrote that Larry Holmes told him before their fight that (Tyson) isn't a pimple on (Holmes') ass, that Holmes is the real legend and that Tyson would ultimately destroy himself.

Tyson also wrote that one of things he really regretted about how he treated people when he was on top was Trevor Berbick trying to shake his hand at the pre fight press conference and Tyson telling Berbick that he should suck his **** just for getting the opportunity to share the ring with Tyson.

Nah he got hammered with an uppercut at 4:54. The impressive thing is that he ate that seemingly unfazed and landed a massive punch seconds later.

Probably the most touching part of Tyson's book is when he talked about having an accountant go through his finances to see where all the money went and how much was left. Tyson wrote that the accountant told him about an IRA Tyson did not even know existed. Cus D'Amato had set up the IRA for Tyson before he died and the money had grown to $250,000 by the early 2000s. Tyson had pissed away hundreds of millions of dollars in his career, yet he sat and cried upon learning about the $250,000 IRA because D'Amato was the only guy he met in boxing who wasn't trying to rip him off.

Meh, he definitely beat a bunch of people of note but no one really legendary.

Yeah one of the underrated things about Tyson was that he actually had a pretty damn good chin.

Gotta love Mike. He grew up. Hope he has some peace these days.

Sorry not sorry in advance, but I think it's >90% that he didn't rape Robin Givens

His one man show he did was incredible. I love Mike, he’s one of my favorite athletes.

I unapologetically record & watch every episode of Mike Tyson Mysteries

He did fight some tomato cans, but then again who didn't at various times? And he made a lot of good fighters look like tomato cans.

Feel like it's pretty inarguable that the heavyweight division was much better in his day overall than it is now, and might be arguable that it was better in his day overall than in Ali's.

Yeah I agree.

I honestly don't see much difference in a Ali-Foreman-Frazier era than a Tyson-Holyfield-Lewis one. Bonus for the earlier era is that an old Foreman stood toe to toe with Holyfield and claimed a belt by knocking out Moore. That was more of MM not listening and being stupid but it was still impressive.

I'm impressed that that show lasted more than 1 season.

Also arguable that the Douglas that showed up to fight Tyson was at a legendary level that night, but dude just seemed ridiculously lazy/uninterested. For some reason he was willing to work his ass off for that fight, but then had a pretty bad camp for Holyfield and then just disappeared for 6 years. Some trainer a few years after the Holyfield fight said he'd ballooned up to like 400 lbs. in that time. He could have been amazing with a decent work ethic.

heh Tyson had that effect on some people. Carl Williams was undefeated when he faced Tyson, wound up a journo with 10 career losses. Spinks never fought again.