25 Years Ago Today

[GirlySports]

It's hard to believe these two events happened on the same day.

[CaptainCrunch]

I watched the Tyson fight on PPV while at university in Texas.

We were going to the bar that night and thought that we'd watch the fight before because it was James "Buster" Douglas and Tyson would murder him and minutes and then we could go and get drunk.

But as the fight kept going on, we knew we were watching boxing history. If I remember there was contravesy in that fight because of what Tyson thought was a slow count when he hammered Douglas to the canvas in the 8th round.

It was a weird knockout with Tyson fumbling around for his mouthpiece. Several friends who are conspiracy types figured that the fix was in and Tyson took a dive.

But at the end of the day Douglas, was one of the rare boxers who didn't show up pants wetting afraid of Tyson.

After that fight, Tyson became a mockery of himself and wasn't the invicible killer. Douglas' life went down hill and he retired after his next fight when he showed up out of shape and Hollyfield knocked him out.

We still went to the bar that night but the conversations focused around the words "Holy %%%%, can you believe that"

[Burke Salad]

Seemed like Tyson was running out of gas the longer that fight went on. I mean the guy was used to KO'ing people in the first round.

[Vulcan]

Yeah I figure Tyson was over confident and out of shape but after that fight the magic was gone.

[polak]

25 years ago today, the Golden age of humanity had just started as I was 3 months old.

[1stLand]

Nelsen Mandela improved South Africa from what was once a desolate third world apartheid nation, into now what is now a Safe, Prosperous Nation.

RIP

[Bagor]

London Herald?

Never heard of it?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

Nelsen Mandela improved South Africa from what was once a desolate third world apartheid nation, into now what is now a Safe, Prosperous Nation.

RIP

I assumed that part was supposed to be green.

[Ben_in_Canada]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Yeah I figure Tyson was over confident and out of shape but after that fight the magic was gone.

I wouldn't say all the magic was gone......

[Dion]

[CaptainCrunch]

I know that this thread has two parts and that Mandela being freed changed the world. But Tyson history to me is amazing.

He actually bounced back a bit after that loss, beating Henry Tillman and Alex Stewart by knockouts, and then Donavan Ruddock in a fight that was another sad legacy in heavyweight boxing (It was thought that the fight was fixed). He did fight Ruddock again and beat him and then had to pull out of a title fight with Holyfield.

When he got out of prison he fighted two journeymen tomato cans in McNeely and Mathis Jr and then won belts by beating Frank Bruno and won the WBA belt when Bruce Seldon took a dive.

That set up the famous two fights against Holyfield that featured a lot of head butts by Holyfield and the infamous ear bites by Tyson.

[habernac]

I remember most of that night. Was my 20th birthday, heard somewhere in the middle of it that Tyson had lost.

[Hessen]

I remember being pretty pissed (both of the fight and alcohol...). We decided not to get the fight on PPV because we didn't want to waste the $ on a short fight with Tyson knocking him out in a minute or so.

[Hevishot]

I definitely would not want to get punched in the skull for a sack of money by Tyson or Douglas.