Classic No Mas - The Real Deal Gets a Real Deal
(Would Evander Holyfield have beaten Mike Tyson in 1990, the year their mega-fight was supposed to go down? Of course, we'll never know if the pre-prison Tyson would have been able to handle the Real Deal, because Buster Douglas showed up f'reals in Tokyo and ruined everyone's plans (costing both Evander and Iron Mike a shitload of money). This Classic No Mas piece takes us back to seventeen years ago today, when Holyfield summarily dispensed of the blubbery Douglas, whose fifteen minutes in the spotlight seemed to come and go in, well, about five minutes.)
October 25, 1990 – Evander Holyfield doesn’t get the big payday, but does get the belts, knocking out a listless Buster Douglas to take the unified title that eight months beforehand Douglas had taken from Mike Tyson.
After the big Tyson upset, Buster treated himself to many a peanut buster parfait and precious little training. He came into the Holyfield fight bloated and soft, weighing close to 250 pounds. Evander, who for the past year had been anticipating a stratospheric superfight with Tyson for the heavyweight crown, was instead faced with just the shell of the man who had knocked Iron Mike on his ass. It was easy work for the Real Deal, a third-round KO, a beauty too, a short right hand over the top onto Douglas's exposed chin after Buster had whiffed on a mighty uppercut.
From there, the trajectories of the two careers parted mightily. Buster retired to a life of fried food and indolence, blowing up to 300 pounds and nearly dying in a diabetic coma before getting himself together and attempting a short-lived comeback. Evander meanwhile became arguably the most dominant heavyweight of the decade, giving us a slew of epic performances – the Foreman fight, the Bowe trilogy, both Tyson fights, and then his two bouts with Lennox Lewis, after which, if the world were a perfect place, his career would have ended.
October 25, 1990 – Evander Holyfield doesn’t get the big payday, but does get the belts, knocking out a listless Buster Douglas to take the unified title that eight months beforehand Douglas had taken from Mike Tyson.
After the big Tyson upset, Buster treated himself to many a peanut buster parfait and precious little training. He came into the Holyfield fight bloated and soft, weighing close to 250 pounds. Evander, who for the past year had been anticipating a stratospheric superfight with Tyson for the heavyweight crown, was instead faced with just the shell of the man who had knocked Iron Mike on his ass. It was easy work for the Real Deal, a third-round KO, a beauty too, a short right hand over the top onto Douglas's exposed chin after Buster had whiffed on a mighty uppercut.
From there, the trajectories of the two careers parted mightily. Buster retired to a life of fried food and indolence, blowing up to 300 pounds and nearly dying in a diabetic coma before getting himself together and attempting a short-lived comeback. Evander meanwhile became arguably the most dominant heavyweight of the decade, giving us a slew of epic performances – the Foreman fight, the Bowe trilogy, both Tyson fights, and then his two bouts with Lennox Lewis, after which, if the world were a perfect place, his career would have ended.
1 Comments:
A tale, nicley told.
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