Bien qu’il ait la possibilité d’un match revanche avec Joseph Parker, le retour de Zhilei Zhang sur le ring se ferait plutôt contre un autre ancien champion des poids lourds – Deontay Wilder. Wilder a été vu pour la dernière fois en action le 23 décembre à Riyad, en Arabie…
Back when Mike Tyson first showed up in public in 2003 with his now-instantly recognizable tribal face tattoo, the first reaction of many folks was, “huh?” followed by, “why?” followed by, “seriously though, why?” But let’s be honest: was anyone going to make fun of him to his face and risk getting detonated by one of Iron Mike’s fists? No, sir. Not only was Tyson still the #1 dude who you did not want to get into a brawl with (and also the man with the most disproportionate “intimidating presence: intimidating voice” ratio), he had bitten off a bit of Evander Holyfield’s ear during a boxing match back in 1997. Tyson was considered volatile, as well as loose, cannon.
Mike Tyson is one of the most recognizable athletes in history. Not the least role in this is played by the boxer’s appearance, namely his tattoos. Many people associate Tyson primarily with a tattoo on his face, but in addition to it, there are six more images on the body of the athlete. And there were three more, which you may have already forgotten about. All of them were stuffed in different periods of the boxer’s life.
Tyson, a legendarily hard-hitting boxer with a career 50-6 record (including 44 knockouts), has been posting sweat-drenched videos of his intense workouts in the lead-up to his first trip back to the ring since his controversial draw against fellow former champ Roy Jones Jr. in Nov. 202 in an exhibition match. Tyson is 21 years from his last win and both men are expected to take home major paydays for the headline-grabbing showdown.
During this time, Tyson came to the attention of gaming company Nintendo. After witnessing one of Tyson’s fights, Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa was impressed by the fighter’s “power and skill”, prompting him to suggest Tyson be included in the upcoming Nintendo Entertainment System port of the Punch-Out!! arcade game. In 1987, Nintendo released Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, which was well received and sold more than a million copies.
Victor Whitmill Victor Whitmill, who created Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo, sued Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. for depicting the same tattoo on actor Ed Helms’ face in “The Hangover Part II.” The film, released May 26, shows Helms waking up in Bangkok with the same facial tattoo as Tyson, who makes a brief appearance in the film.
Tyson reflected on his strongest opponents in ten categories for a 2014 interview with The Ring magazine, including best jab, best defense, fastest hands, fastest feet, best chin, smartest, strongest, best puncher, best boxer, and best overall.
Zhang first met Kurt Li (李茂沛), his English translator (2012–) and his co-manager (2021–) when Li was a staff member handling application forms at the Department of Sports in the 2000s. Zhang asked Li for an application form and Li, a Sichuan Mandarin speaker, did not understand him.
“He’s site here every single day, he’s calling me up early in the morning to go running. He wants to work, he wants to win. That to this day is the same, there’s no change now that he has notoriety,” said George, a former light heavyweight contender turned upstart trainer.
“I was going to get a bunch of hearts and stuff,” Tyson explained to Graham Bensinger. “I was going to be the man of hearts, baby.” While he came “very close” to getting that tattoo, the artist stepped in to prevent Iron Mike from making a big mistake.
Was it a strange action of muscle memory? An act of surrender? Or, as cynics suggested, was it a sign that Etienne wasn’t really as badly hurt as he was pretending to be – that he could have got up and fought on but was quite happy with his million-dollar paycheque and not having to face any more of Tyson’s incoming bombs.
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.
Rapper Lil Pump joined Jake Paul, his girlfriend, Jutta Leerdam, and Kill Jasper in the studio of ‘BS w/Jake Paul’. Over the course of the conversation, Jake Paul revealed that he planned on getting a face tattoo in the week leading to the Mike Tyson fight. Leerdam, the Dutch world speed skating champion, sounded a bit apprehensive over the idea. “Well, I don’t think that’s a great idea,” she said. Lil Pump had other doubts. He asked whether ‘The Problem Child’ hadn’t planned on getting the ones ‘Iron’ Mike donned.
For all his talk of being more active and earning a rematch with Lewis, Tyson’s personal demons were consuming him. He wouldn’t actually enter the ring again until July 2004, when the 38-year-old Tyson was upset by Britain’s Danny Williams, before one last defeat by Kevin McBride in 2005. Two opponents who, with respect, would have been demolished by Tyson at the peak of his powers.
