Even at the end of the fight, which Douglas won by a knockout, the scorecard had Tyson within one good round of defeating Douglas. Such was the investment in Tyson’s greatness that even the official scorers feared telling the whole truth about the fight to themselves.

I think about those experts, as well as Lampley and Merchant, all the time now that I write about politics. During the pandemic, experts told us that border closures hurt the fight against the pandemic — until they couldn’t say it anymore. They told us racism was spreading faster than the virus. “I’ve seen anti-Asian racists before looking loose and relaxed.” Or it’s the central banks. We’ve learned the lessons of history and know that inflation is transitory.

Obviously, when I watch the Douglas-Tyson fight years later, it is easy for me to see what was happening. And of course, years later, Merchant and Lampley can tell you all sorts of things about the fight that a layman wouldn’t immediately see. But on that night, their eyes were shelled by their knowledge. Their mouths were shut by the normal human impulse not to say something that their brains were over-conditioned to dismiss. Their thoughts were limited by what everyone else thought: 90 seconds for this tuna can.