It was in the lead-up to the bout that ‘Iron’ Mike decided to get his now signature Māori warrior tattoo. Reportedly done by celebrated tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill from Las Vegas, the story goes that Tyson originally wanted hearts on his face. However, Whitmill refused to go with the concept. Given that he has himself led the life of a warrior, the former heavyweight champion liked it when Whitmill introduced the Māori ‘tā moko’, a permanent ink decking the faces of Māori tribesmen from New Zealand.

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.

For his part, Tyson has been largely taking the higher road, simply sharing videos of himself preparing for the fight against Paul with expletive-filled captions like “You still wanna f*** with me?.” The tit-for-tat adds extra fanfare to an already hotly anticipated sporting event, and audiences can watch it all go down on Netflix on July 20.

There are still quite a few months to go before we get to tune in live with our Netflix subscriptions and see Mike Tyson and Jake Paul throw down, but “The Problem Child” is already poking the bear and calling out Iron Mike on Instagram. The boxing legend gave a rather tame reply to Paul saying he’s “put him to sleep,” and Paul decided to double down and post another reply to Instagram Stories:

Fighters attitude. Excellent technic on this @MikeTyson ‘s black and gray portrait done with #RadiantColorsInk by our crew member, Luke Dyson @DysonInk #RadiantColorsCrew . . . Get your Ink at www.RadiantColors.com! #DysonInk #DysonInkRadiant #MikeTysonTattoo #BlackandGrayTattoo #MikeTyson #ProTattooist

In 2019, a year before the official closure of Roc Nation’s boxing division, the Lane brothers negotiated Zhang’s release with Matchroom Boxing USA, which Duva, again, had cut a deal with. In 2024, Zhang’s co-manager recalled his promoter tried to stop him leaving by intimidation, dragging him into legal battles and refusing to line him up in fights. Brothers Tommy and Terry Lane, sons of boxing referee Mills Lane, joined Zhang as advisers and box helped guide him out of trouble. It was not clear whether this incident was referring to Zhang’s termination of contract in November 2014 or in 2019.

But here’s the thing: Jake Paul’s use of the tattoo was temporary—it was just a fake tattoo. That’s a big difference compared to Warner Bros. using a permanent depiction in a movie made for profit. Temporary tattoos for promotion often fall into a gray area in copyright law, especially when they’re not directly profiting from the tattoo itself.

After owning them for a short amount of time, Tyson donated two of the Bengal tigers to a local sanctuary, keeping one for 16 years, which he named Kenya. Kenya also featured in the film The Hangover with Mike.

Why did Mike Tyson get a face tattoo? Tyson talked about his decision to get a tattoo, citing a desire to assert his individuality and express himself artistically. For Tyson, a tattoo represents a form of self-expression and empowerment.

Despite Fuller’s reputation as “one of the most skillful and respected defense attorneys not only in Washington, but in the country the defense team embarked on a game plan filled with ill-fated decisions and questionable strategies. While the famous Fuller seemed to give Tyson an imposing advantage, his background made him an illogical choice. Though he’d represented such notables as John Hinckley Jr. and junk-bond king Michael Milken, his reputation came mostly from federal court white-collar cases such as tax fraud and bribery. He simply wasn’t familiar with the rough-and-tumble county criminal courts, and lacked recent experience in sex-crime cases. He couldn’t locate exhibits, fumbled his delivery, exhibited a lack of knowledge of Indiana law, and generally handled Tyson’s defense more like a first-year law student than a seasoned pro.” Fuller had also successfully defended Tyson’s manager, Don King, “against federal tax-evasion charges” in 1985, which may have been one of the reasons King chose him to represent Tyson. Tyson himself would later describe Fuller as “a horrible lawyer”. According to Shaw, Fuller “never challenged obvious problems in Washington’s story. Exactly why did she remove her panty shield? How did Tyson perform oral sex on her and still keep her pinned to the bed? If Tyson is one of the strongest men in the world, where were the bruises on the 108-pound woman?”

On October 6, 2023, the IBF confirmed they would strip the winner of the Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury heavyweight championship unification bout, should the winner not immediately make a mandatory title defense against Hrgović. Hrgović faced Mark de Mori in a stay-busy fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua vs Otto Wallin, on December 23, 2023 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was his first fight as a free agent, as his promotional agreement with Wasserman Boxing expired on November 2. On the night of the fight, Hrgović was able to knock de Mori down in the very first minute of the opening round. The referee stopped the fight at the 1:44 minute mark of the first round, after Hrgović knocked his opponent down for the second time.