Douglas Expected to Be an Easy Payday for Tyson

James (Buster) Douglas, who was two rounds away from a piece of the heavyweight championship three years ago, gets another chance Sunday (tonight), this time against Mike Tyson in the Tokyo Dome.

Douglas, 29, a former junior college basketball player from Columbus, Ohio, is a huge underdog against Tyson, who most figure will make Douglas his 34th knockout victim. Tyson has won all 37 of his fights and Douglas has a 29-4-1 record.

Tyson weighed in at 220 pounds. Douglas was 231 1/2.

Douglas was ahead on points against Tony Tucker, the International Boxing Federation’s champion, at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1987 but faltered in the 10th round and was knocked out. He has won six in a row since, all by knockout. But at no time has he looked like a serious threat to Tyson.

For Tyson, Douglas is the last obstacle to probably his biggest payday yet--the Evander Holyfield showdown, June 18, in Atlantic City. Japanese promoter Akihiko Honda is paying Tyson about $6 million for his second Tokyo appearance. But Tyson could make anywhere from $22 million to $25 million against Holyfield in what is projected as possibly boxing’s richest fight--providing Tyson defeats Douglas.

Actually, Tyson will reduce the Japan-U.S. trade imbalance by more than $6 million. While here he signed promotional contracts with Toyota and Minolta.

This will be Tyson’s first appearance since his 93-second knockout of Carl Williams last July 21 and his second Tokyo fight. In March of 1988, he knocked out Tony Tubbs in two rounds in the first sports event in Tokyo’s domed stadium, known here as the Big Egg.

Tyson is defending his title for the 10th time. Two of his last three victories haven’t gone past Round 1. It is Japan’s third heavyweight title fight. The first two, including George Foreman’s one-rounder over Joe Roman in 1973, lasted a total of 7 minutes 34 seconds.

This fight is for two of Tyson’s three championships. The IBF isn’t recognized by the Japan Boxing Federation, so if Douglas should happen to pull a monumental upset, he would be the WBC and WBA champion, and Tyson would remain the IBF champion.

Douglas, who will make about $2 million, according to Tyson’s promoter, Don King, last fought on the undercard of Tyson-Williams, when he seemed listless and tentative in plodding to a 10th-round knockout over little-known Oliver McCall.

Some thought Douglas had blown his title shot with that showing, but other events played out in his favor. Michael Dokes overpriced himself with King, demanding $3 million to fight Tyson. King signed Tyson instead to fight Razor Ruddock in Edmonton, Canada, last November, but that fight was postponed indefinitely when Tyson became ill.

At that point, Douglas was available for the Tokyo date King had promised Honda. After appearing on five Tyson undercards, Douglas steps up today to the main event.

This time, Douglas says, he brings better physical and spiritual armament.

“I just ran out of gas against Tucker,” he said. “When it came time to suck it up in that fight, it just wasn’t there. This time, I’ve trained as an athlete, not just as a boxer. I needed better conditioning and I got it. I’m in the best shape of my life.”

Douglas has had to overcome the death of his mother last month, which delayed by several days his departure to Japan. And several months ago, Douglas’ wife left him.

“I’ve had personal problems, but I’ve used them to motivate me for this fight,” he said. “I took the Lord Jesus into my life last July 22. Satan knows that, and he knows I’m a great guy, so he’s always out there, coming hard after me.”

Douglas, the son of 1950s middleweight and light-heavyweight Bill Douglas, is trained by an uncle, J. D. McCauley, and is managed by John Johnson, who was an assistant football coach under Woody Hayes at Ohio State in the 1970s.

Johnson calls himself “a disciple of Jesus Christ and Woody Hayes.”

He insists that Douglas is prepared for the assignment at hand.

“Buster has taken some heat for his performance against McCall last summer,” Johnson said.

“But (Don) King had told us we’d get a title shot before that fight, so we fought McCall conservatively. All we wanted Buster to do was win, and not get caught with anything.”

Douglas was asked to comment after an angry Tyson had uttered an expletive before about 500 Japanese reporters at a news conference. He started to knock Tyson, then pulled up.

“I don’t think he’s been a good heavyweight champion . . . for all the power he has to influence young people . . . well, let’s just say I’d do things a little differently,” he said.

His game plan, he said, will be a mix of power and movement.

“The first thing is to hit with a lot of power, that’s the main thing,” he said. “And I’ll show him some movement outside, but I want to go in on him, too.”

If Douglas goes in on Mike Tyson, the best guess is that the trend of short heavyweight title fights in Japan will continue. In other words, seldom will so many have paid so much to see so little. Honda is charging $1,035 for a ringside seat today, $635 more than he got for Tyson-Tubbs.