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'I don't give a damn about Mike Tyson'

Twenty five years ago today, one of history's greatest sporting upsets occurred. Going into a tit...



'I don't give a damn a...
Rugby

'I don't give a damn about Mike Tyson'

Twenty five years ago today, one of history's greatest sporting upsets occurred.

Going into a title fight against Buster Douglas, Mike Tyson was undefeated and the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Ten rounds later, he would be stunned in a knockout victory by his 42/1 underdog opponent.

Ron Borges of The Boston Herald was one of just six American journalists to make the trip to Tokyo to report on the match, and 25 years on he joined us on Off The Ball to reminisce about an epoch-shattering fight. 

"No one thought there was really much of a chance that Buster Douglas was going to win the fight," said Borges,"No one expected what was going to happen, probably not even Buster Douglas." 

Douglas' mother passed away just 23 days before the fight, while the Ohio-born boxer had a strained relationship with his coach father. 

"I remember talking to him three or four days before the fight and said 'are you a little worried about Tyson?' He said: 'What can Tyson do to me that the world hasn't done. I don't give a damn about Mike Tyson,'" Borges recalled, adding that he had a feeling from then on that Douglas was going to win.

Borges believes the feeling of isolation due to personal problems and the loss of his mother helped to "galvanise" him for the fight of his life.  

Meanwhile, Borges says it is a "myth" that Tyson was too out of shape going into that fight.

"Clearly, mentally he was wasn't there and he was without his trainer Kevin Rooney. They had split and he had very inexperienced people in his corner and basically doing what he wanted, when he wanted - training enough to be fit but not training enough to be under assault, which was what happened that night," said Borges, who then spoke about the way Douglas went on to surprisingly dominate the fight in front of a stunned Japanese public.

Borges also went on to detail how Don King, who promoted both fighters, gatecrashed Douglas' post-fight press conference and criticised the count. 

"It's the most contentious press conference I've ever been around and the Japanese press sat there mute," he said, before telling us how Douglas' life and career was affected by victory.

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