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Watson vs Douglas

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GOAT verdictgoatrank.world
DouglasWinner
76.0

Douglas wins: Peak, Longevity

Watson
75.1

Watson wins: Dominance, Statistics

Candidates
Locked to Boxing

Shareable URL · /compare/michael-watson-vs-buster-douglas

Time range

Showing full careers. Pick a window to recalculate the selected period.

Category radar

Verdict

Weighted GOAT score
🇺🇸 Buster Douglas
76.0

Douglas leads in 3 of 5 weighted categories. Produced boxing's greatest upset by knocking out Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990.

1. Buster Douglas
76.0
2. Michael Watson
75.1

Category breakdown

Season form · Form index per season

Career timeline · Form index per season

Cumulative output season by season — the shape of each career against the other.

GOAT pace tracker

Career stage · GOAT pace

Through year 5 · Form index per season
1. 🇬🇧 Michael Watson5 years played · career day 1,82619 title wins
Setting the pace at this stage
2. 🇺🇸 Buster Douglas5 years played · career day 1,82517 title wins
-10.5% vs Watson at the same stage
Ghost race · career day30100365100018253650
🇬🇧 Watson00591626
🇺🇸 Douglas00481725

Careers are aligned at debut, so a rookie's first 5 years are measured against the same window in a legend's career — Yamal against Messi at the same age-stage, a tour rookie against Tiger Woods in 1996.

MetricWatsonRetiredDouglasRetired
Commonwealth titles1
Professional wins2538
Knockout wins18
World title fights2
Professional bouts3046
World heavyweight titles1
Knockouts25
Title defences0
Dominance w25%7270
Peak w20%8892
Longevity w20%6672
Honours w20%7070
Statistics w15%8278

Fan vote — data vs the people

GOAT Rank · the data
Douglas76.0
Watson75.1
The people
Watson
Douglas

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Make your case for Watson vs Douglas. The scoring is published in full — if you can point at the pillar or the weight you disagree with, we read it. Read the methodology paper.

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