Today, I am looking at the three biggest upsets in heavyweight title fight history, and why they happened. I will also examine why they were such big upsets to begin with. History has a way of making us forget the element of surprise, as it stood at the time of these shocking events. Buster Douglas KO 10 Mike Tyson - A 42-1 underdog shocks the boxing world, pulling off the biggest upset in boxing history. Why the odds were so wide – It was Tyson! He was the most famous athlete in the world at that time, a KO machine, who barely needed to break a sweat to defeat most contenders in a soft heavyweight division. Douglas also had a tendency to display weaknesses in the chin, stamina, and heart departments. He was also not a big puncher. His size and impressive boxing ability were his only allies, and Tyson had vanquished far greater challengers. Why it happened – Douglas used his past defeats, as well as recent personal tragedies (his mother’s death, and son’s mother’s illness) as motivation to stand up to Tyson. He also overcame his stamina and heart issues, which left only his chin. Tyson was smothered on so many occasions, he could rarely find it. Also, Tyson turned out to be the classic bully… whose heart was drained by his opponent’s lack of fear. When “Iron Mike” could not intimidate, he became the follower. It also didn’t help that Tyson’s corner was run by inexperienced Don King yes-men, who were completely unprepared to give Tyson decent advice. Instead they tried to stop his swelling eye with a condom filled with ice water, and continuously implored him to "get inside and work". Tyson stayed in the fight only to find his puncher’s chance… when even that big shot did not end the fight, he succumbed quickly thereafter. James J. Braddock W15 Max Baer - A 10-1 underdog, expected to be flattened, outboxes the feared, powerful champion. Why the odds were so wide – Braddock may have been on a hot streak, and had never been knocked out, but Baer was considered an unmoveable force. Braddock was merely a light heavyweight who had exposed some over-rated contenders, to earn an unlikely shot. Baer’s fists had claimed the lives of two men, and the scalps of many others, and it was thought that Braddock’s style lended him to suffer potentially serious damage.