Even though I’d covered most of his significant bouts at that point, it’s still not every day that Mike Tyson calls you at home so I was suspicious. Tyson’s voice was frequently imitated, and comedians used to make fun of his lisp and the higher pitch to his voice than his size suggested.
Zhilei Zhang (Chinese: 张志磊; pinyin: Zhāng Zhìlěi; born May 2, 1983) is a Chinese professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) interim heavyweight title between 2023 and March 2024. As of June 2024, Zhang is ranked as the world’s fifth-best active heavyweight by The Ring magazine.
The powerful Chinese southpaw’s trainer just doesn’t think those adjustments will be enough for Joyce to avenge his sixth-round, technical-knockout loss to Zhang in their second fight Saturday night. England’s Joyce was a 9-1 favorite in their first fight, but Zhang is slightly favored to win their 12-round rematch for the WBO interim heavyweight title at OVO Arena Wembley in London.
When I first started going to Cus’s, he didn’t even let me box. After I finished my workout with Teddy, Cus would sit down with me and we’d talk. The first thing Cus talked about was fear and how to overcome it.
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 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.
There have been some incredible biopics in the history of American cinema. From Denzel Washington in Malcolm X to Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, there have been unbelievable portrayals of famous and notable people in history on screen by some of the best actors and actresses in the world. One of the most notable being Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles in the critically-acclaimed film, Ray.
Tyson would, of course, take on the real grandmaster in the form of Steven Segal in 2017’s “China Salesman,” while Yen is set to join Keanu Reeves in 2023’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.” But Tyson might well maintain the title of Yen’s most formidable opponent, with the actor expanding on his experience during promotion for “Ip Man 3.” He recalled feeling as though the fight was “life-threatening” and being worried that Tyson wouldn’t hold back, saying to himself “‘Wow, what if he doesn’t remember the choreography. What if he comes in and instead of 1, 2, 3 he goes 2, 3, 1.’ So it was enjoyable but at the same time it was truly life-threatening.” As it turns out, Tyson was the one who is in the welterweight division boxing actually got hurt, stating in an interview post-shooting that he “broke finger.”
That only underscores the fact that not every movie or TV series that is authorized automatically makes it a better or more thoughtful story. Or even a complete one, for that matter. Because sometimes even those who authorize it have other objectives.
In 2012, Tyson made his Broadway debut in his one-man show Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth, directed by Spike Lee. Two years later, Tyson’s animated venture Mike Tyson Mysteries, a comical crime-fighting spoof, premiered on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.
Zhang speaks the Henan variety of Central Plains Mandarin in most of his post-match interviews and on his social media Douyin and Weibo, which has become a signature characteristic of his, as those born before the mid-1980s are the last generation to speak Central Plains Mandarin fluently. It and other languages of China have been gradually replaced by Beijing Mandarin in the younger generation in Henan and provinces all over China.
Warren added: “The winner of this fight will be definitely called to fight the WBO champion next year. The loser will have to wait at least 18 months to two years to get a sniff at a voluntary defence.”
From 1992 to 1995, while in prison for the rape of Desiree Washington, Tyson read a large number of books, including works by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. Spike Lee sent Tyson a copy of tennis player Arthur Ashe’s deathbed memoir, Days of Grace. Tyson was moved by the book and respected Ashe’s ability to be nonconfrontational and admired his political views and his success as a black athlete in a white-dominated world. Tyson got prison tattoos of both men on his biceps: A portrait of Mao, captioned with “Mao” in all-caps, on the left; a portrait of Ashe beneath the words “Days of Grace” on the right. Gerald Early views the Mao and Ashe tattoos as together “symboliz both newfound self-control and his revision of black cool”, with Mao representing strength and authority. Clifton Brown in The New York Times describes the Ashe tattoo as “a contradiction” with Tyson’s “fits of rage”. Early and biographer Richard Hoffer cast the two bicep tattoos as an unusual combination of, in Hoffer’s words, “alternate icons”.