Two earthquakes hit Tokyo on the 11th day of February 1990 when James Buster Douglas turned Mike Tyson and the world on its head.
Late into the night of that seismic 42-1 upset a lesser tremor shook the city.
Tyson’s promoter Don King was holding court in the penthouse suite of a skyscraper hotel, trying to invalidate the knockout which had inflicted the first defeat of Iron Mike’s career and the loss of his undisputed world heavyweight title on the grounds Douglas had been saved by a long count earlier in the fight. He would lose the appeal even though the tapes proved him right.
As usual with King, the world champion gourmand, all the tables were groaning with food, western and oriental. As the room shook, the veritable banquet slithered all over the carpet and our shoes.
Two doors along the corridor Tyson came spilling out of his bedroom accompanied by three young beauties whom we could only assume had been treating him to the delights of the finest Japanese tea.
On Friday night, 34 years later and half way around the world in the Lone Star State of Texas, will the earth move again for us?
Mike Tyson was stunned by Buster Douglas as he suffered his first defeat in January 1990
Now, he finds himself the underdog against a YouTuber 31 years his junior, Jake Paul
This time the shock will be if Tyson comes out of the ring alive after defeating Jake Paul, a YouTube confection of a boxer 31 years the younger. Well, at least according to the snowflakes insisting Tyson should be pulling on his slippers instead of lacing up the gloves for his first fight in almost two decades at the grand old age of 58.
The woke brigade, who still refuse to believe Cackling Kamala lost to The Donald, would prohibit one of the greatest heavyweights of all time from making a comeback — not to mention earning up to $15million — and prevent him once again revelling in the lights, cameras, action and roar of the crowd in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Whatever happened to the right of every man, and woman, to decide exactly what they do with their own lives and bodies as long as it is within the law?
There are dangers in everyday life. So should we all be kept indoors for the rest of our days? Tyson himself prays before crossing the street and he’s by no means alone in that. He will pray as he goes into a fight for the first time after a 19-year hiatus from the ring. But nothing will stop him making those choices.
Paul is a virtual novice but trading blows with a large, hairy unit who resembles the Yeti presents the bigger immediate risk. Tyson is not taking it for the money. In fact he is chancing a chunk of his own millions by betting on himself to win.
No, he is doing this for the thrill that he misses. For the adrenaline rush pumped by the atmosphere of a big fight. For the scale of challenge he has never been able to resist. All of which are among the reasons why prize-fighters nearly always come back to the ring.
Perhaps above all for the opportunity to perform in front of thousands in a huge stadium which he was denied in his pomp but he sees being enjoyed by lesser fighters today. It is for this satisfaction he demanded that Friday night be sanctioned as an official fight with the result recorded on both their professional records.
The use of 14oz gloves, rather than 10oz, and the reduction from three to two minutes for the scheduled eight rounds were applied by the Texas licensing authorities. Partly to deflect some of the criticism and perhaps to save Tyson from himself to some extent. Not that a ward-full of doctors could find reason to apply for legal intervention, despite him suffering bleeding from a ruptured stomach ulcer which forced a four-month postponement of the fight.
Many fans are not happy that the long-retired Tyson is returning to the ring at 58 years of age
Tyson has been tempted back into the ring by Paul, and has every right to fight again
Fascination in America appears to have dipped during that delay. But although there are still seats available in all parts of the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium, curiosity as well as a drop in ticket prices is likely to fill most of them come fight time.
As well as drawing millions to the first boxing match to be streamed on Netflix.
Whether they all get to witness the war Paul is threatening or sheer entertainment does not matter as much as many are saying. Big-name fighters past and present are praying Tyson wins, to protect the purity of boxing. But would a win for Paul be the ruination of the hardest game? I think not. If one of the most legendary boxers were to lose, as he approaches 60, to a social media celebrity it would likely do no worse than shake the foundations briefly.
Either way Paul, whose intelligence has been so widely insulted, will add mega-more millions to a bank account already bulging at nine-figures. While continuing to attract a new generation of fans to the sport.
The perceived wisdom here is that Tyson will need to knock him out in the first two or three rounds, or else his attempt to take out Father Time in the process will run out of gas.
I’m not sure. Nor is Roy Jones Jnr, with whom the Baddest Man On The Planet shared an eight two-minute-rounds exhibition match four years ago and reports now.
‘In the last round, Mike was still as quick and sharp and hitting with the same massive power as he did in the first,’ he said. ‘Like that, he will still be too much for Paul.’
There was evidence of the familiar hand-speed and heavy punching in Tyson’s brief work out here this week. Jones boxed his way warily through a draw but he, unlike Paul, is another of the best fighters of all time. There was also a suggestion that Iron Mike pulled some of his punches in the closing stages. Hopefully he will not reprise such leniency with his record on the line.
Any hint of a contrived draw here would be a bigger letdown than telling the infant members of the Tyson brood that Father Christmas is not real.
Paul may try to run, but Tyson still looked sharp in his exhibition bout with Roy Jones Jr in 2020
Tyson only needs to land one big punch like we saw so often in his heyday to put Paul away
Frankly, concerns about the well-being of one of the fighters might be better focused on the younger man. If Tyson lands flush with even one punch it will be like nothing Paul has experienced in his handful of mediocre fights thus far.
Although Paul has promised his anxious mother he will be the one to stop Iron Mike, the most frequent suggestion is that he will dodge, duck and dive in the hope that Tyson fades in the second half. More likely, as with the majority of Tyson’s victims, he would find that he can run but cannot hide.
For weeks Tyson has abstained from sex and smoking the product of the vast cannabis farm in Nevada of which he is co-owner. He says: ‘I feel fitter, stronger and fresher than I did for much of my career.’
Younger, also. To the extent that he is pondering whether victory would propel him into a proper comeback. Perhaps one extended to an outrageous bid to become the oldest world heavyweight champion. Why not? He is already the youngest.
Not even the medical specialists can predict what will happen to a fighter this close to 60 when he tries to turn back the clock. But Tyson is just one almighty punch away from making yet more history.
Don’t bet against him landing it on the YouTuber’s button.
