{"id":881868,"date":"2026-10-14T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881868\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:06:19","slug":"netflixs-mike-tyson-docuseries-offers-an-incomplete-portrait-of-a-troubling-figure-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881868\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s Mike Tyson docuseries offers an incomplete portrait of a troubling figure | Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Tyson never envisioned old age. And yet here he still is, having outlived his parents, Brooklynites of ill repute who died when he was a teenager, and the Brownsville tough guys who teased him for being scrawny and having a lisp. Here he is after doing hard time for rape in his prime, winning and losing great fortunes and battling addiction to drink, drugs and fame. Here he still is, 60 years old and a grandfather now, mixing it up with Jake Paul in the ring<\/a>, opening up to manosphere-adjacent podcasters<\/a>, bobbing into an impromptu White House press briefing \u2013 M\u0101ori face-tattoo unmistakably in the frame<\/a> \u2013 while on a DC visit to buck up his old pal as his party faces a bleak midterm forecast. \u201cI don\u2019t have to exist,\u201d the champ says in Tyson, the latest four-part vanity project on his turbulent life and times. \u201cSome reason, something allowed me to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his heyday, Tyson was a mesmerizing sporting event unto himself \u2013 the ruthless knockout machine who struck fear into opponents at first sight, felled them in seconds and looked back on the carnage with cool nonchalance. His darkest episodes \u2013 the combustive relationship with actor Robin Givens<\/a>, the six-year prison sentence for rape, biting off Evander Holyfield\u2019s ear \u2013 only deepened the public fascination with him, adding to the lore of boxing\u2019s baddest man. In the winter of his life, Tyson\u2019s self-reflection, so deep it tips into self-parody, is the enthralling spectacle now. And if generations of Black comedians have proved anything, it\u2019s that the appetite for Mike Tyson impersonations<\/a> is inexhaustible.<\/p>\n

This new Netflix docuseries isn\u2019t the first rehabilitation project to feature the disgraced heavyweight champion: in 2008, there was the HBO documentary he produced with since #MeToo-d director James Toback<\/a>; in 2012, the one-man Broadway show featuring Tyson and director Spike Lee. In between, there were Tyson\u2019s cameos in The Hangover, which reframed his erratic behavior as campy mischief. But even as this kinder, gentler Iron Mike was invited back on to the chatshow circuit to promote his latest ventures, after being dropped as a major pitchman in the wake of abuse and rape allegations, the charm offensive could never quite gloss over his ugliest moments on camera \u2013 like the time he threatened to eat Lennox Lewis\u2019s children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tyson biting off Holyfield\u2019s ear<\/a> in their 1997 title fight remains one of the most bizarre incidents in sport, a forever freeze-frame of a competitor come totally unhinged. \u201cI was horrified by it,\u201d Bill Clinton said at the time, \u201cand I think the American people are\u201d. When reminded of that quip in the Netflix doc, Tyson took offense, asking what Clinton \u2013 of all presidents \u2013 knew from scandal.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump promoted a number of Tyson\u2019s fights at his Atlantic City casino and went to bat for him in the press after Tyson split with manager Don King. Director Floyd Russ, who previously helmed a forensic OJ Simpson documentary<\/a>, sits down with Trump at the White House for the Netflix doc, but the interview isn\u2019t much of a coup. Mostly, Trump looks old and tired and makes the interview about himself. \u201cThe media was rough on Mike, but it just made Mike hotter,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re rough on me, and I\u2019m president!\u201d The assault allegations aren\u2019t brought up \u2013 perhaps because they might hit too close to home.<\/p>\n

Givens and Desiree Washington are the glaring omissions from Netflix\u2019s Tyson \u2013 but not for lack of effort, the documentary hastens to note. In the case of the pageant contestant \u2013 who was 18 when she accused then 25-year-old Tyson of rape \u2013 all Russ has to go by is the 1992 interview Washington gave to Barbara Walters, in which she said she was offered $1m to recant her story<\/a>. \u201cJust a lying, reptilian, monstrous, young lady\u201d is how Tyson characterized Washington in a 2003 interview with Fox\u2019s Greta Van Susteren<\/a>, adding that, with his reputation as a rapist already established, he might as well \u201crape her and her fuckin mama\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Tyson \u2013 who has even outlived fellow rogues Simpson and Tupac, an ardent supporter the boxer still remembers for visiting him in prison \u2013 dismisses Washington in the documentary as another opponent he overcame. \u201cWhatever bad she tried to do, she lost,\u201d he tells Russ. \u201cWhat did she get, a million and a half bucks? I came out of prison with 400m bucks, so you tell me. I\u2019m invincible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, longtime Tyson watchers might be inclined to dismiss that as more tough talk, given how entrenched his vulnerabilities are in media canon. Over the years, Tyson has spoken at length about how growing up poor and Black in Brownsville, amid abuse at home and bullying on the streets, followed him into adulthood. The death of Cus D\u2019Amato, the mythic boxing trainer who nurtured his talent and brought stability to his life, continues to cast a long shadow. The timing of that loss, just as Tyson was on the cusp of becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history, remains a source of tremendous pain. In 2009, his four-year-old daughter was playing on a treadmill when she became entangled in the machine\u2019s emergency-stop safety tether and accidentally strangled herself<\/a>. In those tough moments, you really feel for the guy.<\/p>\n

And yet there is something unnerving about Tyson\u2019s candor, his willingness to revisit the darkest chapters of his life with the same openness as his triumphs \u2013 like sitting down with a storybook monster and finding him eager to explain the horrors without actually having to take any accountability for them. And while the Netflix doc captures Tyson seemingly without pretense \u2013 eavesdropping on his therapy sessions and joining in on his hallucinogenic Toad -venom 5-MeO-DMT trip<\/a> \u2013 the fighter is never completely unguarded. He knows the cameras are there, and that Netflix will take it easy on him. Tyson, a producer on this project too, invited them in after all. If anything, the doc makes clear Tyson lives for the camera and redemption is never the point \u2013 and that the gawkers will keep showing up, even though most already know what is in store. \u201cThis camera, to me, is a narcotic,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m so overwhelmed and overpowered by this narcotic, I\u2019ll make a fool out of myself. It\u2019s just that addicting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Tyson never envisioned old age. And yet here he still is, having outlived his parents, Brooklynites of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-881868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}