"Mike Tyson was up under a lot of pressure. How can you say it? When a man is going through a divorce with somebody he loves and all the other things that were going on, there was a lot of pressure on Mike Tyson. Listen, Kevin Rooney, his former trainer, had a lawsuit against Mike Tyson. Bill Cayton had a lawsuit against Mike Tyson. Going into those fights, he was able to overcome it with Bruno the first time, and Carl "The Truth" Williams, he was able to overcome it, but it was a relentless pressure," stated Aaron Snowell, world-class trainer of Hall of Famer Mike Tyson, who recalled their shocking knockout loss to Buster Douglas. Snowell, shares his thoughts on being on the losing end of one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
PC: Obviously when you pull off an upset win with a guy like Frankie Randall over a legend like Julio Cesar Chavez, you are praised and commended. When you lose to a James "Buster" Douglas and you have an undefeated Mike Tyson, the praises go away and the criticism begins. What happened in Tokyo, Japan on February 11, 1990?
AS: You gotta realize something, and I want to say, I trained Mike Tyson for fights before that. Many people just think I trained him for the fight in Tokyo. I trained him for fights before that and I trained him in fights after that, so lets clear that up (laughing). I have trained a lot of fighters and a lot of world champions. What we're looking at is a situation where Mike Tyson was up under a lot of pressure. How can you say it? When a man is going through a divorce with somebody he loves and all the other things that were going on, there was a lot of pressure on Mike Tyson. Listen, Kevin Rooney, his former trainer, had a lawsuit against Mike Tyson. Bill Cayton had a lawsuit against Mike Tyson. Going into those fights, he was able to overcome it with Bruno the first time, and Carl "The Truth" Williams, he was able to overcome it, but it was a relentless pressure; relentless pressure on him. He loved Robin Givens. He wanted to be with her, but people around them didn't want her because she had influence on him. Mike would take off from training to go see her, and that's what he did before we went to Tokyo. He would go there and hang out and sob the wounds of that. It was a tough situation that he was in. He had a lot of commitments on the line.
If you look at Buster Douglas, which a lot of people don't do, look at his wins that he had over fighters before he fought Mike Tyson. He has wins over a lot of former heavyweight champions and some good fighters. He beat Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick, and Greg Page. The thing with Buster, it's always been times he don't put everything into it and there are times where he puts everything into it and he gets results. In Tokyo, from my view, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. His mother had passed and no one was giving him a chance and he was in great shape. And what probably helped Buster too as far as a mental thing was when Greg Page knocked Mike down in sparring in Tokyo. You can call it a slip or some people say he got hit and some say he didn't get hit, but he went down. I think that part mentally helped Buster too.
PC: I think a lot of people forget Mike was a young man dealing with some of the pressures you mentioned. He was only 23 years old in that fight, and that's not to take anything away from Buster because he fought a phenomenal fight. Mike couldn't get off in that fight like I was accustomed to seeing.
AS: He was very young and he was talented, man. Let me say something, they can say whatever they want about Mike Tyson, but for Mike Tyson to get himself in that position, he trained hard. He was relentless and that's what made him the Superman he was because he had a good work ethic. He would train very hard. The mental controls the physical and when a fighter is not mentally ready for the task at hand, you're not going to get the same result physically. Mike always had a psychologist, even when he was working with Cus D'Amato, to keep him focused, but Mike had put it in his mind. He was there, but he wasn't there. And like anything, when ego and stuff come into play, you feel I can get away with it this time. But one thing about Mike Tyson, he puts himself on the line and that's what makes great legends thrilling. If he don't knock somebody out, he's going to get knocked out trying to knock somebody out and it's going to be exciting. These fighters nowadays, most of them don't want to put themselves across the line to knock somebody out, and that's because there are risks with doing that. However, in a big fight, when you're at a certain level, there really ain't no losers. Ray Leonard been knocked out, Tommy Hearns been knocked out, George Foreman been knocked out, and Joe Frazier been knocked out. Joe Louis been knocked out. All of the great legends, with the exception of a few, have been knocked out. But it's not how they were knocked out. It's how they came back. It's the thrill of victory and even when they get knocked out, it's going to be thrilling.
And that's what happened in Tokyo. It was two fights is what I called it. Mike Tyson really bailed himself out that night. There was just a crucial error from a referee who messed up on the count, and that's what makes a great fight a great fight. There is all different types of antics outside the ring and inside the ring and all different types of drama and controversy that surrounds a major upset like that. There were things that were put on me. The cutman who was the cutman that night, the cutman we had didn't have his tools. However, you know I'm the head trainer and when something falls short, if you can take the wins, you gotta take the losses too. It's a two-way street. There was a cutman I used all the time back then, a great cutman named Eddie Aliano. He is a legendary cutman, however, some people didn't want Eddie Aliano. They wanted somebody else, and that somebody else got this guy to be the cutman and he came there without the necessary materials and I had to make a call from the line of scrimmage and that was something is better than nothing. They can say whatever they want, but what do you do? But like anything, you gotta take the fire in those situations.
PC: How did you handle the criticism that stemmed from that aftermath of that fight?
AS: When you're in the game and you know who you are, people are going to spin things to sell newspapers. And people are going to say things, like Kevin Rooney and Teddy Atlas, all of the things they said about me, I know it ain't true. I know it ain't true and they say things because they are looking for people to write and keep their names in newspapers, so they just say anything off the cuff. But the proof is in the pudding!
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