It’s an amazing thing when you realize your father doesn’t know everything. Or that your doctor is just another human being who went to school for a long time. Or that your grade school social studies teacher doesn’t know everything about history.
Or that the most dangerous monster in the world, a fighting menace, can be beaten just like any other man. That’s what happened in Tokyo twenty years ago today when James Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson. In the years since we’ve seen Tyson for what he is – a talented but deeply flawed individual – but at that moment it was a truly shock.
The legend and image of Tyson never quite matched with the results, but for anyone growing up with Iron Mike on their television he represented something powerful and elemental. He was a superhero brought to life, a living thing of fire and muscle who could break walls with his fists. With his squat physique and menacing entrances he seemed as much a thing of fiction as a living sportsman and the belief people had in his abilities reflected as much.
We all know what happened that night in Tokyo. An inspired James Buster Douglas fought the fight of his life. Mike clearly wasn’t in form, having undertrained with only his hangers on for support. It’s a common refrain that he was unfocused after legendary trainer Cus D’amato died, and it’s true, but there was more to it than that. The Douglas of that night would have always given him trouble. Buster was tall, threw in combination, and used a good jab. He was hungry and unafraid and he gave Mike a fearful beating.
Tyson seemed uninterested even as he was losing. The Japanese crowd sat in silence, partially from shock but mostly as a reflection of their culture. When Mike started to swell, his woefully unprepared cornerman held something that looked like a condom against his face.
And then Mike went down in the tenth round. He ate an uppercut that looked like it might have snapped a man’s neck right off. He struggled to pick up the mouthpiece and the fight ended and so did my belief in the supernatural.
No, there really aren’t monsters after all. Or if they do exist they live by the same laws of the physical body as the rest of usl.
I’m sure every generation has similar moments of realization, but that was it for me and many others. It changed the way I looked at sports, probably for the good, but forever less magic and romantic.
Douglas would never win another significant fight. He was blasted out by Evander Holyfield in his next outing – countered on the very same uppercut he used to etch his name into history.
For Mike it has been a long way down. Some wonder what could have been.
“If only he would have trained harder.” “If only Cus had lived a few years longer.”
The questions are interesting but ultimately, of course, futile. I happen to believe Mike could have had a more accomplished career, but that he was always flawed. I don’t think he ever could have beaten Evander Holyfield, who proved that true menace can come in a different guise.
But all that is secondary to that night twenty years ago. The night that Buster Douglas gave an entire generation a lesson in mortality.
