A better prepared Mike Tyson means a lot of things. If Tyson still retained his trainer Kevin Rooney and trained properly, he might have beaten Buster Douglas. I see might have but not definitively due to a few factors. I stick by the old cliche that styles make fights. Mike Tyson is a swarmer. He depends on pressure and speed in order to get inside and throw flurries of quick powerful punches to do damage. Getting inside he is susceptible to long range shots such as jabs and straight rights. Went inside, Mike Tyson's defensive posture is an A-frame due to his large chest muscles. And A-frame involves a fighter putting their hands at cheek level to block punches while their elbows protrude diagonally. Douglas was chosen as Tyson's opponent because he was in underachiever. He was always regarded as a good fighter but not good enough to be great. The fight with Douglas was taken in order to avoid Tyson fighting his mandatory challenger, Evander Holyfield. In the fight, Douglas perfectly neutralized Tyson's offense by clinching whenever Tyson got close and making him pay with long range shots to get close. This discouraged Tyson's attack to the point that he would have lost the fight even if he hadn't been knocked out. Up until this fight Tyson face the same opponent over and over. It was a beaten man who was afraid of the legend of Mike Tyson. Douglas didn't have that problem because he didn't care about living. His mother had just died. He promised his mother to win and for the first and only time in his career, dedicated himself to actually training. All of his strength was galvanized into one goal which was to become champion. The reason I believe that might Tyson still loses that fight, despite being a full prepared version, is that his style is made to be picked apart by fighters who lean on him, bully him, and make him pay in order to try and do damage. Even if Mike Tyson wasn't doing drugs, or sleeping with up to six woman on the day of the fight, still would not have the experience to deal with a person who was fighting to win and not survive. He had been to a decision with Mitch Green but was totally in control of the fight. I venture to say that up until douglas, Mike Tyson hadn't actually been in a true fight. A fight involves a somewhat equal sharing of suffering. Mike Tyson was throwing out beatings. Mike Tyson have been to a decision with Mitch Green, though he was in control of the fight. Tony Tucker and Pinklon Thomas showed that Mike Tyson could be extended if he takes punishment. Though they got stopped, they offered a blueprint on how to deal with Mike Tyson's aggression. A prepared Tyson would have definitely lasted the duration of the fight. You might have even found the knockout as he did score a knockdown in the actual fight. I wouldn't think too much on the knockout in my opinion because Douglas did get up off the campus, though with the help of an extended count. It is possible that a prepared Mike Tyson could have won by knockout, but his style versus the style that Buster Douglas is bad for Tyson. It was bad for Tyson when he fought Lennox Lewis. Yes, at that point Mike Tyson had declined further. But when considering a recipe, it doesn't matter how long the recipe has been around. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. Because I do not believe that boxing has any integrity and the Tyson versus Holyfield fight would have made too much money at the time to pass up, I could totally envision Douglas winning a close contentious decision in the eyes of the public and still walking away with a loss. My final prediction of a fully prepared Mike Tyson versus Douglas is Tyson via a dubious decision.
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