Hailed as one of the greatest boxing legends of all time, Mike Tyson has once again found himself in a fight—this time for the rights to his life story.
On August 25th, Hulu is launching the first two episodes of an eight-episode biopic series entitled Mike. The dramatized series stars Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) as Tyson and Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, National Treasure) as famed boxing manager and trainer Constantine "Cus" D'Amato, and offers viewers a personal look at Tyson’s storied life in and out of the boxing ring, including many of the scandals that “The Baddest Man on the Planet” weathered following his retirement from sports.
The series is entering into a canon of Tyson stories that includes two memoirs and a one-man documentary show, Undisputed Truth, directed by Spike Lee. What makes Mike differ from the canon, however, is Tyson’s complete lack of involvement and staunch refusal to support the project.
Tyson, who was neither approached about the series prior to its creation nor offered compensation, has publicly and consistently fought against the upcoming dramatization of his life since 2021 when Hulu greenlighted the project. In an Instagram post, Tyson called out the “corporate greed” that often preys upon social and racial disparities, calling the series a “tone-deaf cultural misappropriation of the Tyson life story.”