‘Mike Tyson: The Knockout’ Docuseries To Air On ABC

The “climb, the crash, and the comeback” of the “Baddest Man on the Planet” will be explored in an upcoming documentary series. ABC will broadcast Mike Tyson: The Knockout later this month.

Mike Tyson’s life story will be presented via the four-hour program. Veteran actress Rosie Perez, former HBO Sports President Ross Greenburg, ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap, and more will appear in The Knockout. Unaired interviews with Tyson were also included in the doc.

“In addition to being an inspiring story of the perseverance and hard-won growth of one extraordinary person, Mike Tyson’s life and career are also relevant to the important collective self-reflection finally occurring in America,” said Geoffrey Fletcher, The Knockout executive producer.

Mike Tyson: The Knockout is set to air on the ABC network beginning May 25 at 8 pm ET with the second installment airing on June 1. Episodes will be available for streaming on Hulu the next day. Both ABC and Hulu are owned by The Walt Disney Company.

In February, Mike Tyson called on his Instagram followers to boycott Hulu after the streamer announced it would be presenting an unauthorized 8-episode limited series about Tyson titled Iron Mike. The former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion lashed into Hulu on IG for what he saw as “corporate greed.”

“These actions taken by Hulu are just the tip of the iceberg. We shouldn’t be surprised by these abhorrent actions as they represent systemic racism that has plagued Hollywood for its entire existence,” wrote Tyson on the social media platform.

He added, “These corporate giants hide behind ploys and praise themselves for offering tone-deaf attempts at diversity and inclusion like Hulu’s ‘Black Stories’ playlist that recommends stories about Black culture to viewers on the app. Yet behind closed doors, they steal stories from the Black community.”

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54-year-old Mike Tyson has experienced a cultural renaissance over the last several months. He took part in the highly-publicized exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020. The event reportedly garnered 1.6 million pay-per-view buys which amounted to more than $80 million in PPV revenue.

Recently, Mike Tyson made several appearances on All Elite Wrestling’s Dynamite television show. AEW’s April 7 episode, which featured Tyson serving as a special enforcer for a match between Chris Jericho and Dax Harwood,  drew an average of 1.2 million viewers. That was the highest viewership number for Dynamite since its premiere episode in October 2019.

Up next for Mike Tyson is a possible bout against former three-time world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. The 55-year-old British-Canadian prizefighter is said to be in talks to come out of retirement to box Tyson in an exhibition fight. Tyson and Lewis faced off in the ring on June 8, 2002. Lewis won that clash by knockout in the eighth round.