James Douglas

Heavyweight boxer from Columbus, Ohio who scored one of the biggest upsets of all time by stopping Mike Tyson in 10 rounds in 1990. James Douglas had already been fighting since the eary eighties, but there was nothing in his record that suggested that he was capable of handing Tyson his first loss. In fact, bookmakers gave him so little chance that they made him a 42-1 underdog for his Tokyo, Japan fight with Mike Tyson. But Douglas surprised the world by dominating the fight from the beginning, seemingly hitting Tyson at will with jabs[?] and right hands and getting out of range when Tyson launched his own punches. Only in the 8th round did Tyson come close to victory. In the waning seconds of the round Mike Tyson hit Buster with an uppercut[?] and down went Douglas. He was up at the count of 8, and the bell rang before Tyson could follow uo on his sudden succes. After the fight Tyson and his team would protest that the referee[?] had started his count too late and that Douglas should have been counted out, but those protest were of no avail. By the start of the 9th round Douglas had fully recovered and continue to give Tyson a boxing lesson. In the next round the inevitable happened, After a devastating combination from Douglas Tyson was floored for the first time in his boxing career. The referee started to count and when Tyson failed to climb to his feet on time, the fight was over. The winner by a knockout and new Heavyweight[?] Champion of the world was James "Buster" Douglas. Buster Douglas couldn't follow up on that succes however. In the following months Douglass did little training and his weight ballooned. When he defended the title later in the year against Evander Holyfield, he was nowhere near the fighter he was when he had beaten Tyson. Holyfield knocked him out in three simple rounds and Buster retired from boxing afterwards. A couple of years later he made a comeback. He was succesful at first, but when unheralded Lou Savarese[?] knocked him out in the 1st round he hung up his gloves for good.