I remember not even taking the fight seriously. I remember how on that Saturday, I just happened to remember, "Oh, Mike Tyson's fighting tonight". For those of you who can remember, HBO was trying to act as if this fight was worth watching. They kept talking about how Douglas' mom had died and how his son's mom had cancer. They went on to talk about how he was winning against Tony Tucker (Who stunned Mike in the second round of his fight with Mike) before his 10th round knockout loss. The biggest over-played moment was watching Tyson kinda-sorta knocked down by Greg Paige in a sparring session (In my opinion, I believe that is what made Paige believe he should come back). When the fight started, I remember thinking immediately, "This dude isn't scared!".... By the second round I was saying, "After this fight, people may want to watch Douglas fight again". I was totally conceding that he was going to lose after putting up a good effort. After the 5th round, I was already through a few fingers of nails. In the eighth, I was all over the knock down and believed the fight was over; the round was the only thing that was over! After the knockout, I was numb! I remember taking the subway home from the Bronx, downtown to Harlem to catch the uptown six train to go back uptown to the east Bronx. I was on the platform waiting for the train as everyone else was minding their business. I saw a dude listening to his walkman and I asked him if he had watched the fight tonight. He said, no. I told him, "Mike Tyson just got knocked out!". My man took his walkman off of his head and said, "Don't play with me like that". I told him I was serious and this cat looked like he just lost a family member. By the time we got onto the downtown four heading to Harlem, the entire car of that train was talking about it. There were some seriously pissed off people on that train. I was just hoping they did not kill the messenger.
Oh yes. I remember like it was yesterday. I was waiting for the train listening to some tunes on my walk man and minding my own business and some fruity looking fellow came up to me said Mike Tyson got knocked out . I said don't be playing with me fool. And he said he wasn't....I said wow cool. but the guy wouldn't go away. He proceeded to smile at me and ask me for my number but I luckily lost him in the crowd...been homophobic since.
I had just turned 8. I remember a big picture on a newspaper where Tyson was on canvas trying to find his mouthpiece. The following summer is when I began to care about boxing, Douglas-Holyfield was my first fight tape ever and I watched it dozens of times
the day after it happened, a kid from the neighborhood said to me "Tyson lost to that 42-1 guy, Buster" and I said "yeah right" because I hadn't watched the news or sportscenter or whatever I grabbed the newspaper and there it was... utterly amazing to me at that time
My dad predicted it, but then he's one of those people who goes for the underdog in every single fucking fight so it didn't mean much
WHAT??? That was my first response when my uncle told me. He didn't even know who had beaten Tyson, said he thought it was Bonecrusher something
REED's Told this Story Many Times on Fightbeat/SecondsOut... REED was a Freshman @ Morehouse College, the NBA Dunk Contest was On the SAME Night & Nelson Mandela was RELEASED from 27 Years of Imprisonment the Following Morning...Needless to Say, the Tyson Fight was an Afterthought...INITIALLY, that Is... After Watching Rex Chapman Do a Sweet Ass Over the Shoulder Dunk, Kenny Smith (Yeah, the Guy that ANNOUNCES w/Charles Barkley on TNT) Doing the btwn the Legs-Off the Backboard Dunk & Dominique Wilkins WINNING it, Students were Heading to Go Party & Whatnot when out of Nowhere, a Guy was Sprinting Around Campus like a Madman, Yelling "Mike Tyson Got KNOCKED OUT, Mike Tyson Got KNOCKED OUT!!!!"... REED & Everybody Else ASSumed Dude was a DRUNKEN Attention Whore & Completely Disregarded it...REED's Boxing Fandom was @ it's LOWEST During his College Days, but there were Still TRACES of it Present, so REED Made a Point to Watch the Local Evening News that Night, just to B Safe...Lo & Behold, the OPENING Story of the Atlanta Newscast was about Mike Tyson LOSING...NO Photo's or Footage of Any Kind, yet they VERIFIED the Drunken Attention Whore's Comment... REED's Dorm Probably Housed about 300 Dudes & LUCKILY, some Dude Actually RECORDED the Fight in it's ENTIRETY...Word Spread like Wildfire & Before Long, there was about 50 Dudes in a CRAMPED Ass Dorm Room, Watching Every Moment of Tyson-Douglas, Probably 2-3 Hours AFTER the Fact...Tyson was Still a Media Darling Then AND there were Quite a Few East Coast Cats @ Morehouse, so they Took the Fight VERY Hard...Short of Having a Fight w/GOD, the Mere Idea of Mike Tyson LOSING a Bout was LAUGHABLE...ESPECIALLY to Buster Douglas... Nonetheless, REED & 50 Others Watched the Fight in Amazement...& to B Honest, MOST of the Focus for the Remainder of the Night was on Tyson Losing MORESO than Nelson Mandela Finally Being fREED...& Morehouse is a BLACK, Somewhat POLITICAL College!!!....REED DID NOT Go to Sleep that Night...The Combination of Tyson LOSING & Mandela's RELEASE Made it IMPOSSIBLE for REED to Sleep... REED:hammert:
