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Mike tyson and buster douglas fight1/5/2024 ![]() From a business perspective, the rights fees earned and the reviews of the international production created by Denny and Wynn were a big success. Denny set up a distribution plan for providing interviews and training footage, in addition to other promotional material on behalf of the Mirage, to broadcasters on every continent, including major rights holders in the United Kingdom, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Australia and more. He selected Alexis Denny, formerly of ABC Sports and CBS News, and who had been one of the only people in sports television to work on all 3 Leonard-Duran fights, boxing's most well-known trilogy of the 80s. Wynn hired Mike Trainer, known best for his work as attorney for Sugar Ray Leonard to distribute the international rights directly for the Mirage, and sought out an entrepreneurial television producer who would produce the manage and arrange distribution to over 100 countries around the world. Typically the pay-per-view rights were sold to local US cable operators via either Showtime or HBO, and international rights were sold through the champion's promoter. Pioneering Television Sales Ĭasino mogul Steve Wynn, then chairman of the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, hosted the Douglas-Holyfield fight and made an unprecedented move to manage the television pay-per-view and international sales through his own organization with the help of individual consultants with expertise. Holyfield, meanwhile, would earn $8,025,000. Prior to the fight, it was announced that Douglas and Holyfield would split a $32,100,000 purse with Douglas guaranteed a then-record $24,075,000, the largest purse ever paid to a single fighter at the time. Though Tyson and his camp had hoped for a rematch Douglas ultimately decided to defend his title against the top contender and signed a fight with Holyfield. After much public backlash, King rescinded his protest and both organizations officially recognized Douglas as champion. The WBA and WBC initially agreed with King and announced that they would not recognize Douglas as champion until they reviewed the allegations, though the IBF accepted the result as valid. Despite being knocked down in the eighth round, Douglas bounced back and knocked Tyson out in the tenth round to claim the title in what was called by Jim Lampley, broadcasting the fight for HBO, as "the single biggest upset in the history of heavyweight championship fights." The fight was not without controversy, however, as Tyson's promoter Don King, claimed that referee Octavio Meyran had not properly counted the knockdown on Douglas from the eighth round (saying that Douglas was down for ten seconds and not the eight count he received), and that the result should be reversed and Tyson should instead be declared the winner. Tyson was so unprepared that his corner did not bring proper equipment to the fight, with no ice bag or endswell, and was forced to use a latex glove filled with water to try to reduce the swelling to his eye. Not only had Tyson never been defeated, but he had only gone the distance four times in his career and had not gone past the fifth round with an opponent since Tyrell Biggs took him to the seventh round in 1987.ĭouglas, however, had other plans and subjected a stunned champion to a severe pounding. Douglas was not given much chance to last against him. The only one that did so, the Mirage, installed Tyson as a 42-1 favorite. As a result, most casinos didn't even bother to make odds for the fight. ![]() Despite having been regarded as a top contender for the title in the past, Douglas' reputation was as a lazy, out of shape fighter who did not pay much attention to his training. ![]() A match between the two was signed for June 18, 1990, and Tyson elected to take a tuneup fight on February 11, 1990, against fringe contender James "Buster" Douglas in Tokyo. 1 contender to Mike Tyson, who was the undisputed champion of the division and who in 1988 won the lineal championship from Michael Spinks. Shortly after that Holyfield became regarded as the No. In his first fight at heavyweight he defeated James Tillis by knockout and then knocked out former champion Pinklon Thomas before the year was out. ![]() The bout took place at the Mirage in Paradise, Nevada, USA and saw Douglas making the first defense of the titles he won from Mike Tyson in February 1990.Īfter becoming the first boxer in history to win all three major sanctioning organizations' world titles in the cruiserweight division, Evander Holyfield decided to move up in class and take on the top heavyweights. Evander Holyfield, billed as " The Moment of Truth", was a professional boxing match contested on October 25, 1990, for the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight championships. ![]()
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