Buster Douglas

James “Buster” Douglas started boxing at the age of 10 for Blackburn Recreation Center under the coaching of his father Bill Douglas. While boxing, he also plays football, basketball through elementary and Jr. High School. Through his boxing amateur career, he accomplished: 3-time Gloden Glove Champion, 3-time Ohio State Fair Champion, and participation in the 1975 Junior Olympics.

Douglas is a High School Graduate of Linden McKinley High School Columbus, Ohio, where he was a 1977 State Basketball Champion for the #2 ranked team in the country. Douglas graduated from high school in 1978.

Douglas played College basketball at Coffeyville Community College in Kanas and Sinclar Community College in Dayton, Ohio before turning pro. He started his pro boxing career in August 1981 in Columbus, Ohio at the Mount Vernon Plaza. Around 1985, he started to become a top contender for a world title. He got his first shot at a world championship against Tony Tucker in 1987 for the IBF title.

After that fight, Douglas went on a 6-fight winning streak for another shot at the world title but this time it was for all the belts to become Undisputed champion. In 1990 in Tokyo, Japan, despite being a 42-1 underdog, which is still the biggest betting odds in sports history, James Buster Douglas became Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World and defeated Iron Mike Tyson with a 10-round knockout.

As of Today, James Douglas is working with the youth in the same area that he grew up in and coaching boxing for the same recreation community that he started in when he was 10 year old.