Douglas Thinking Rematch
James “Buster” Douglas is asked if he’d like to fight Mike Tyson again and he says sure, why not.
“Not for the money,” Douglas explained. “I’d want to do it to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke.”
It has been nearly 6-1/2 years since that charmed day in Tokyo when Douglas, a 42-1 underdog, shocked the boxing world by handing the seemingly invincible Tyson the only defeat of his professional career on a 10th-round knockout.
“I had watched Mike a lot,” Douglas said. “I was on the undercard of several of his title defenses. I knew he was a great champion, but I was also very confident in my own abilities. I always thought that if I got the opportunity, I could show him some things he hadn’t seen before.
“I have a good jab and move pretty well for a big guy. Tyson has some problems with tall men who have a good left hand and move around well. That’s no secret.
“But knowing what to do and being able to do it aren’t the same thing. Now it’s like, execute the James Douglas fight plan and you, too, will beat Mike Tyson. There’s more to it than that.”
To some, Douglas’s words ring empty these days. His upset of Tyson earned him a $24.1 million payday in his next fight, an image-deflating, third-round knockout loss to Evander Holyfield. Douglas took his plunder and retreated into comfortable, if unhealthy, retirement in Marco Island, Fla. His weight shot up to 350 pounds and he was hospitalized after slipping into a diabetic coma.
“When I came out of the coma, all the doctors told me I had to lose weight,” Douglas said. “The best way I knew how to do that was to go back in the gym. As the weight started to come off, the idea came to me that maybe I could fight again.”
So here Douglas is, 36 years of age and hardly svelte at 255 or so pounds, ready to launch an improbable comeback on the undercard of Saturday’s pay-per-view show at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City headlined by another pair of fading warriors, middleweights Roberto Duran (97-11, 67 KOs) and Hector “Macho” Camacho (58-3-1, 28 KOs).
It remains to be seen whether Douglas (30-5-1, 20 KOs), who takes on journeyman Tony La Rosa (24-5, 16 KOs), is returning as a novelty act or as a legitimate contender.
“There are five or six fighters who could give Tyson a real fight,” Douglas said. “And I would have to include myself in that group, of course.
“Tyson definitely is the man again, but if we fought, a second fight would end the same way the first one did. If there is such a thing as a James Douglas fight plan for Tyson, there isn’t anyone who can execute it better than James Douglas.”
Dial-a-champ?
Russian-born Alex Zolkin (24-2, 15 KOs) and Henry Akinwande (29-0-1, 17 KOs), an Englishman of Nigerian descent, square off June 29 in Indio Springs, Calif., for the World Boxing Organization heavyweight title recently relinquished by Riddick Bowe.
Italy’s Francesco Damiani became the Puerto Rico-based sanctioning body’s first heavyweight king by stopping Johnny Du Plooy in three rounds on May 6, 1989. Three of the WBO’s six succeeding champs Ray Mercer, Moorer and Bowe - either vacated the title voluntarily or were stripped of it.
Lonesome glove
Former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer (36-1, 30 KOs) can’t expect much crowd support when he takes on Germany’s Axel Schulz (21-3-1, 10 KOs) for the vacant International Boxing Federation heavyweight title Saturday in Dortmund, Germany.
“He’s going to be fighting a German in Germany in a 60,000-seat outdoor stadium,” said Moorer’s trainer, Teddy Atlas. “I think Michael is the better fighter, but to prove that, he has to be able to block out all the distractions.”
Wanted: Piece of the rock
Former heavyweight champ Larry Holmes (65-5, 42 KOs) closed out his distinguished career last Sunday with an eighth-round knockout of Anthony Willis (15-5, 11 KOs).
He leaves with only one regret - a Sept. 21, 1985, loss to Michael Spinks that prevented Holmes from matching Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 career mark and ended his 7-1/2-year title reign.
“My greatest disappointment was when I didn’t beat Michael for that record,” Holmes said. “I didn’t even know anything about the record until the media brought it up, but once I knew about it, I wanted it.”