‘He’s got that beast in him’: the difficult legacy of Mike Tyson

The boxer has disowned a new scripted series about his life, as those who have known him continue to have complicated thoughts on who he is and was.

LEGACY: Former boxer Mike Tyson attends the junior welterweight bout between Montana Love and Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela at T-Mobile Arena on May 07, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pic: Al Bello/Getty Images

Mike Tyson remembers throwing his first punch at a bully. “The guy ripped the head off my pigeon,” the retired boxer once recalled in a radio interview. “This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon. That was the first time I threw a punch.” 

Half a century later, the last great undisputed world heavyweight champ is angry again. This time the perceived bully is the Disney-owned streaming service Hulu. Last week it launched Mike, a scripted series about Tyson’s life starring Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes as the self-declared baddest man on the planet.