This earned him a shot at the International Boxing Federation championship that was stripped from Michael Spinks for refusing to defend it against Tony Tucker. Douglas fought just three times in 1986, defeating former champion Greg Page and fringe contender David Jaco in two of the bouts. The next year, he fought up-and-coming contender Jesse Ferguson. Douglas defeated the former heavyweight contender by majority decision. Berbick withdrew from the bout three days before it was to take place Randall "Tex" Cobb elected to take the fight on short notice in Berbick's stead. On November 9, 1984, Douglas was scheduled to face heavyweight contender Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas. In his last fight of 1983, Douglas was dominating opponent Mike White, but White knocked him out in the ninth round. Douglas needed just seven total rounds of fighting in the three bouts combined to score the three KOs. Two of his wins were knockouts of Jesse Clark, whom Douglas had also stopped in 1981. He was penalized two points during the course of the fight, which proved to be the difference on the judges' scorecards.Īfter the draw, Douglas beat largely journeyman fighters for the next 14 months. After six more fights, all of which he won, Douglas fought Steffen Tangstad to a draw on October 16, 1982. Bey handed Douglas his first defeat by knocking him out in the second round. Douglas won his first five fights before coming into a fight with David Bey weighing 20 pounds heavier than he usually had for his previous bouts. He was managed by former Ohio State University assistant football coach John Johnson. JSTOR ( February 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭouglas debuted on May 31, 1981, defeating Dan O'Malley in a four-round bout.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. He moved back to Columbus to focus on boxing. He also played basketball at Sinclair Community College from 1979 to 1980 in Dayton, Ohio, before attending Mercyhurst University on a basketball scholarship. He is in the Coffeyville Community College Men's Basketball Hall of Fame. After high school, Douglas played basketball for the Coffeyville Community College Red Ravens in Coffeyville, Kansas, from 1977 to 1978 the 17-year-old was a 6'0" power forward. He attended Linden McKinley High School, where he played football and basketball, leading Linden to a Class AAA state basketball championship in 1977. His father ran a gym at the Blackburn Recreation Center near Downtown Columbus and subsequently introduced young James to boxing (in the same way James would later bring his son Lamar to the same gym). The son of professional boxer William "Dynamite" Douglas and Lula Pearl Douglas, Douglas grew up in Columbus, Ohio, in the predominantly black Linden neighborhood of Windsor Terrace. Retiring shortly after the loss, Douglas returned to boxing between 19 until he retired a second and final time. He reigned as the world heavyweight champion for eight months until he was defeated by Evander Holyfield in his only title defense. Defying expectations, Douglas would knock out Tyson in the 10th round to claim the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. He also defeated heavyweight world champions Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick, and Greg Page.ĭouglas was a 42-to-1 underdog going into his 1990 fight against Tyson, who was undefeated and considered to be the best boxer in the world for his domination of the division over the previous three years. He reigned as undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1990 after knocking out Mike Tyson to win the title. James " Buster" Douglas (born April 7, 1960) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 19.
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