press five more. Douglas was down for between 12 and 13 seconds. The referee had picked up the count when the timekeeper reached four but he started at one. “I’d like to recognise my mistake because rules are rules,” said Meyran. “I started my personal count and I mistook.”

But when did sporting results get overturned because the referee made a mistake? His word is meant to be law even when he is wrong, and the dressing-room lawyers quickly turned up examples of the WBC and WBA upholding this principle. The Douglas camp maintained that their man was judging his return to the vertical while the referee counted. “He acted like a great pro,” said John Russell, the cornerman. “He listened to the count of the referee. He wasfine. He winked at me during the count.” Russell could have added that had his man been hard done by, the odds against Sulaiman, Mendoza and King meeting to reverse the verdict were even greater than the original odds against Douglas.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Buster Douglas floors Tyson. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features

But by last night people seemed to have lost interest in the legend of lunch-time. Douglas was just making everyone’s financial planning very complicated. So it had better be recorded now that, those 12 seconds apart, he was totally Tyson’s master. He punched tellingly, then moved out of range. Tyson just lumbered around. When he moved in, he did so primarily to wrestle. It was a wretched and baffling performance. Tyson has had no obvious booze-and-broads