Evander signed to fight the new champion Buster Douglas on October 25th, 1990 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Douglas was to earn $24,000,000, while Holyfield would get $8,000,000 to challenge for the crown.
Douglas was rumored to be training like a literal lazy slob, eating pizza while in a sauna bath to lose weight, and not working hard in the gym at all. Holyfield on the other hand, trained harder than any heavyweight alive, using weight training, running, and traditional boxing exercises to get in shape. I was torn in as to who to root for quite frankly, since I had learned to respect Evander, and admired his work ethic. Buster had gained the affection of millions by knocking out Tyson, and mine as well, so as fight day approached, all I knew is I was excited to see it happen.
This meant another trip to the Pavilion in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to see the closed circuit broadcast. The weigh-in for the bout proved the rumors to be true, when Douglas weighed in a soft and fleshy 246 lbs., 15 lbs. more than when he upset Tyson. Evander tipped the scales at 208 lbs., as solid and fit as a fighter could be. That pretty much determined the outcome before I even left my house, and drove to see the fight.
I was as right as I could be. Douglas could barely land a jab through the first few rounds, and kept throwing amateurish uppercuts from the outside, as if trying to repeat his magic from the Tyson bout. His strategy backfired in the third round, when Holyfield countered one of those uppercuts, and knocked him down and out with a powerful right to his head. Douglas laid on the grown like a quitter, wiping blood from his nose, and never even tried to get up. It was a thoroughly pathetic performance, and it was good to now have a heavyweight champion I could truly respect and admire.
I went home disgusted with Douglas, and nicknamed him “Buffet’ for his cowardly lack of effort, and hoped he stayed retired, where he belonged. He would be forever known for his knockout of Tyson, but a real champion shows up for more than just one fight. Douglas didn’t have it in him to do that, and October 25th, 1990 showed it to the whole boxing world.
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