Mike Tyson Slams ‘Tone-Deaf Cultural Misappropriation’ Of Unauthorised Series About His Life

Mike Tyson has slammed streaming service Hulu for creating a mini-series about him without his permission.

The mini series, named Iron Mike, has been branded a ‘tone-deaf cultural misappropriation’ by the legendary boxer, who has called on his 14.5 million Instagram followers to boycott Hulu.

The news of the series comes after Hulu announced several new projects on Thursday, February 25. The production team behind Margot Robbie’s I, Tonya are said to be behind the Tyson series.

While many boxing fans appeared to be excited at the news of a mini series on Tyson, he himself is much less so.

Taking to Instagram yesterday, February 26, Tyson shared a photograph of the Hulu logo with a red cross through it alongside the hashtag ‘#BoycottHulu’.

The statement issued alongside the picture read, ‘Hulu’s announcement to do an unauthorized mini-series of the Tyson story without compensation, although unfortunate, isn’t surprising. This announcement on the heels of social disparities in our country is a prime example of how Hulu’s corporate greed led to this tone-deaf cultural misappropriation of the Tyson life story.’

The boxer continued:

To make this announcement during Black History Month only confirms Hulu’s concern for dollars over respect for black story rights. Hollywood needs to be more sensitive to black experiences especially after all that has transpired in 2020.

The 54-year-old went on to say ‘the real Mike Tyson authorized story’ is currently in development and will be announced in the near future.

Tyson concluded the statement with, ‘Hulu to announce stealing a black athletes story during Black History month couldn’t be more inappropriate or tone deaf.’

Hulu are yet to respond to Tyson’s comments about its upcoming series.