Tyson’s new trainer, the legendary Freddie Roach, actually pleaded with his fighter to postpone the event billed as ‘Back to Business’ due to his poor conditioning. Tyson had gone through a messy divorce in January and has since admitted he’d been hanging out in drug dens, taking coke and weed, in the aftermath of his fight with Lewis. Roach feared that a defeat to Etienne could end Tyson’s career.
Despite the ear bite, Tyson had a legendary career, winning 50 fights and 44 by knockout. The 57-year-old six-time heavyweight champion hasn’t boxed professionally since 2005 but is returning to fight Paul. Tyson’s last fight was an exhibition against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020, which ended in a draw.
Over the years, he has attended rehab as well as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. His commitment to a sober life has been more successful recently. “For seven years, I didn’t get high, didn’t drink liquor,” Tyson said in 2023. He credits psychedelic mushrooms and marijuana for changing his life and curbing his reliance on alcohol and cocaine.
The 27-year-old Paul, meanwhile, has transitioned from YouTube to professional boxing and has won nine of his 10 fights. His only defeat came against Tommy Fury, the younger half-brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, in February 2023.
Later, while doing early morning roadwork, Ippo approached him. After Ippo mentioned how he must be full of spirit now that his match is set up, Takamura noted that it is only the super middleweight class, grumbling that he can’t afford to waste any more time since he is behind schedule. When Ippo revealed that Kamogawa and Yagi has a dream of having a fight at the Tokyo Dome, Takamura became motivated to have Ippo and him take Kamogawa to the Tokyo Dome. Ippo reminded Takamura that he isn’t a boxer anymore, but Takamura told him that it doesn’t matter how he gets there. Later, Takamura was at the Yamaguchi Chiropractic when he gets thrown out the window by Yamaguchi after asking her to “do it” with him to give him motivation. As Takamura left, a crow defecated onto his head, he locked eyes with a black cat, and Tomiko called out to him. After Takamura informed his gym mates of the bad omens he had at the Yamaguchi Chiropractic, Ippo suggested for him to go get an Omikuji at the shrine he goes to. Takamura declined at first before going with Ippo and Itagaki to the shrine to get an Omikuji. After getting the worse luck Omikuji, Takamura ran away. Later, while on a walk, Takamura noticed a boy chasing after a ball he dropped that was going out in the road. Seeing that a vehicle was coming towards the boy, Takamura ran in front of the vehicle to grab the boy, jumped off the hood of the vehicle and landed safely. However, since Takamura accidentally cracked the boy’s ribs while holding him, he took him to the hospital. While there, Takamura explained the story to Ippo and Yagi, who rushed to the hospital as they thought that Takamura was hurt.
“I have a morphine drip, and I had my cocaine, and I had my Cialis, I had my marijuana, I had the Hennessy,” Tyson said. “I started beating them. I was in a dark place. There was a purpose, though, because I didn’t want to give them any more of my soul.”
Mike Tyson famously has a tribal tattoo on his face, which he got inked in 2003 and says represents his “warrior status.” But one of the more surprising Mike Tyson facts is that the boxer initially had a very different idea for the tattoo.
After that tattoo, others followed, forming a collection mostly adhering to the style called “blackwork,” accompanied by certain elements of traditional tattooing. The decision to get a face tattoo arose more from a spontaneous impulse than from detailed planning. “I saw designs and people with tattoos on their faces, until, suddenly, I decided to do it. It’s similar to having a book on your bedside table for seven weeks and, one day, just like that, you read it in one sitting.”
Ever since the first fights involving YouTube stars KSI and Joe Weller back in 2017, people from all walks of life – from TikTok to music – have slipped on the gloves and stepped into the ring, with the exhibition demographic of the sport growing rapidly.
Tyson faces Jake Paul on July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys. In a historic first, Netflix will be airing it in place of DAZN Exclusive streamings. ‘Iron Mike’ and his return to boxing holds so much gravitas, that even an impetuous ‘Problem Child’ imitates his iconic face mark in the theatrical promo. Mike Tyson and his tattoo are recognizable by all.
At the time of its creation, the IBF was called United States Boxing Association International (USBA-International) but was later renamed the International Boxing Federation (IBF) officially box in bing.com 2018. IBF also introduced the IBF boxing championship belts, further expanding the title of a unified world champion.
The American former boxer Mike Tyson has four tattoos of note. Three—at least two of them prison tattoos —are portraits of men he respects: tennis player Arthur Ashe, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, and Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. The fourth, a face tattoo influenced by the Māori style tā moko, was designed and inked by S. Victor Whitmill in 2003. Tyson associates it with the Māori being warriors and has called it his “warrior tattoo”, a name that has also been used in the news media.