Fans and bookies weren’t the only ones who assumed the fight was an easy win, or even a set up. Mike himself thought this was just a little blip on his continued path of world dominance. After all, he was the reigning undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. He entered the fight with a record of 37 – 0 with 33 knockouts.
Unfortunately, Mike’s complacency went to his head. Instead of spending months training and preparing, he basically just vegged out.
His lack of preparedness was on full display when Mike showed up to the weigh-ins with essentially a beer belly. Douglas on the other hand hit the gym and showed up in the best shape of his life.
During the actual fight, Mike looked tired and out of shape (because he was), whereas Douglas looked better than ever. He was aggressive, fast and did not tire easily. In the 9th round, Douglas did something to Tyson that no one had ever done before, he forced the champ to the ground.
It was in the 10th round that the world changed. That’s when, to every human being’s absolute shock, James “Buster” Douglas not only defeated Mike Tyson, he KNOCKED HIM OUT.
It’s hard to overstate how big of a deal this was at the time. I was only 7 years old but I knew something insane had happened. Mike Tyson was larger than life. He couldn’t lose to some nobody. But he did.
How Much Did Buster Douglas Make Beating Mike Tyson?
Mike earned the $6 million to show up and Buster Douglas earned $1.3 million. With bonuses and PPV money, Buster’s total cut was $3 million. That’s roughly $6 million today after adjusting for inflation. An incredible amount of money at the time, especially for a guy who had never earned more than $200,000 from a single fight previously. But this wasn’t the fight that would put Buster on easy street for life. Douglas’ next opponent would be Evander Holyfield – Tyson’s intended next target. Douglas earned $24.1 million, the largest boxing purse in history up to that point, when he faced off against Holyfield. That’s the same as around $44 million in today’s dollars.
Holyfield, who earned $8 million, defeated an overweight and out-of-shape Buster in the third of twelve rounds.
But Douglas didn’t seem to mind one bit. He fought a few more times in much smaller venues. His final match was in February 1999.
All told, Buster earned the equivalent of $50 million between those two fights alone. Perhaps more importantly, he changed the world forever.
