One fateful day in the winter of 2003, Mike Tyson decided to get an enormous tribal tattoo right on his face. You might think that’s the sort of thing he’d look back on now at the age of 50 and regret, but no.
The fight looked on the brink of being cancelled until Tyson belatedly showed up in host city Memphis. The confusion around whether the contest was even happening then caused Etienne to pull out – before he changed his mind 24 hours later, perhaps realising there weren’t too many other $1million paydays on his horizon.
In September, Zhang returned to China for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerned that no one would recognize him, Li hired a dozen actors to greet him. When Zhang exited the Hangzhou Railway Station, hundreds of fans were waiting for him. “No one was paying attention to me when I first turned pro,” says Zhang. “But with my recent fights and the recent noise I’m making, it’s significant. The recognition of boxing in China now is tremendous.”
Zhang could not access high-profile matches to make himself known under Roc Nation until they parted ways in 2019. Zhang won 19 back-to-back low-profile fights under the Roc Nation banner. Zhang wanted better-known, tougher opponents with bigger payouts, but Dino Duva didn’t do it. Zhang was particularly upset once when his promoter organized a match at a high school basketball court with a portable dressing room which spectators could see into. Zhang felt he was not taken seriously by his promoter. He was paid around $7,000 for his pro debut, and some of his earlier pro fights were paid $2000 and $5000. When Shawn George became Zhang’s head coach in 2017, George was upset by how the promoters saw Zhang as a novelty act along the lines of Nikolai Valuev. Dynasty Boxing’s minority owners, brothers Tommy and Terry Lane, believed Zhang would become “the Yao Ming of boxing” and clashed with Duva over his lackluster promotion of Zhang.
The symbolism of the Mike Tyson Mao tattoo is deeply personal and connected to his personality and experiences. While the exact meaning may vary, the tattoo is often interpreted as a symbol of strength, resilience and tribal heritage.
On Tyson’s right arm is a detailed portrait of Mao Zedong, the Chinese revolutionary leader. Tyson chose this tattoo as a symbol of rebellion and resilience, traits he saw in himself. The tattoo reflects Tyson’s interest in socialist and revolutionary ideologies, showcasing his alignment with figures who disrupted the status quo.
Despite its popularity, the Mike Tyson tattoo has also been the subject of legal disputes and controversies. One prominent example is the lawsuit filed by tattoo artist Victor Whitmill over the use of the design in the movie The Hangover Part II.
After months of dancing around rules for their controversial boxing match this summer, on Monday it was announced that the bout has been officially sanctioned and will go down as a professional matchup.
“My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion ever, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time. This will be the fight of a lifetime.”
“My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion ever, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time,” Paul said in a statement.
“I don’t like it but I was with Mike when he was getting ready for his Roy Jones Jr. fight. This dude is disciplined, he gets moody when he’s in fight camp and doesn’t smoke as much. He runs every day at 5’o’clock in the morning. If there’s anybody super ferocious who can potentially put this dude out, it is Mike.”
The tattoo, which covers a significant portion of Tyson’s face, features a tribal design that wraps around his left eye and cheek. The intricate pattern incorporates various shapes and lines that create a sense of depth and dimension, giving the tattoo a unique and eye-catching appearance.
Similar to his tattoo of Mao, Tyson’s ink of Che Guevara on his ribcage represents his admiration for revolutionaries. Guevara, an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, was a major figure in the Cuban Revolution and is globally recognised as a symbol of rebellion against inequality. For Tyson, this tattoo is a personal emblem of fighting against life’s challenges and standing up for one’s beliefs.
On April 2, Tyson confirmed at that time the fight was to be classified as an exhibition bout and was not set to be recorded on their professional records. In response to rumors of 18-ounce gloves and headgear, Tyson said in an interview, “not true at all”, and clarified: “This is called an exhibition, but if you look up exhibition, you will not see in yahoo.com any of the laws that we’re fighting under. This is a fight.” On April 10, Paul confirmed that they will be submitting a request to the Texas Combative Sports Program for the bout to be sanctioned as a professional bout.