Mike Tyson has lived the kind of life where a two-hour documentary apparently isn’t enough.
Netflix has unveiled TYSON, a four-part documentary series dedicated to one of the most famous ,and controversial , figures boxing has ever produced.
The series goes all the way back to Tyson’s childhood in Brooklyn before tracing the extraordinary rise that turned him into the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history at just 20 years old.
At his peak, Tyson wasn’t simply a successful athlete. He became a global celebrity whose name escaped boxing entirely. His intimidating fighting style, personality and chaotic public life turned him into one of the most recognizable sports figures of his generation.
But Netflix isn’t presenting this as a straightforward sports success story.
The documentary also explores the controversies, legal issues, personal struggles and periods of self-destruction that followed Tyson throughout his life. Tyson himself appears in the project reflecting on that history, including describing his younger self as being “addicted to chaos.”
That retrospective angle might be particularly interesting for younger viewers.
A whole generation now knows Tyson through a completely different internet-era version of him: podcasts, memes, cameos, viral interviews and, more recently, his heavily promoted fight with Jake Paul.
TYSON is essentially going back to explain how we got here.
All four episodes arrive on Netflix on October 13.
And considering the amount of mythology that has built up around Tyson over the past four decades, four episodes suddenly doesn’t sound excessive.
Netflix has a LOT of explaining to do.
