Hulu’s upcoming series about the life of Mike Tyson has pissed off perhaps the one person it should have aimed to please, Tyson himself. The boxing legend has recently spoken out against the making of “Mike,” the limited series set to debut on the network on August 25th starring Trevante Rhodes. Tyson claims that Hulu “stole my life story,” and states that he was in no way affiliated with the production, nor was he compensated in any way.
On Saturday, the former Heavyweight Champion posted to his Instagram a text only post that reads in part:
“Don’t let Hulu fool you. I don’t support their story about my life. It’s not 1822. It’s 2022. They stole my life story and didn’t pay me.”
The post which has currently has over 3,000 likes is captioned by Tyson with: “Hulu is the streaming version of the slave master. They stole my story and didn’t pay me.”
Tyson also let off a round of shots on Twitter in regards to the matter.
“Hulu stole my story. They’re Goliath and I’m David. Heads will roll for this.” In a later tweet the boxer wrote, “Hulu’s model of stealing life rights of celebrities is egregiously greedy.”
Just the day before, Tyson also took to social media to say that Hulu offered UFC president Dana White ‘millions’ to promote the show and that he’d refused. “He turned it down because he honors friendship and treating people with dignity,” he wrote.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this isn’t the first time the champ has spoken out against the show. When news about “Mike” first released in February of this year, Tyson called it “tone-deaf cultural misappropriation” in a since deleted Instagram post. He states that the only project he supports and has an active role in its production, is a show in the works by Jamie Foxx and director Antoine Fuqua.
Earlier this month during an HBO presentation of “Mike” at the Television Critics Association press tour, executive producers Steven Rogers and showrunner Karen Gist stated that they never intended to portray Tyson as either hero or villain.
“We just wanted to tell an unbiased story and have the audience decide what they think or feel,” Gist said. “Challenging what people think they know about Mike and hoping that they come away from the series with something else to think about.”