From what I read, he wasn’t horribly unprepared, but not at his best either. But it’s not really a justification though, because that’s pretty much the way he was from Frank Bruno on. Once he fired Kevin Rooney and surrounded himself with yes men he thought all he had to do was intimidate his opponents and they’d quail before his iron might. And it worked, about 75% of the time. Which left him kinda screwed when it didn’t, against Holyfield and a few others after Douglas.