Tyson got his face tattoo from artist S. Victor Whitmill of Las Vegas, Nevada, shortly before Tyson’s 2003 fight with Clifford Etienne (which would be his 50th and last victory), having previously suggested that he would get a face tattoo if he won Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson. Tyson had originally wanted hearts (which he “just thought … were cool” ), but, according to Tyson, Whitmill refused and worked for a few days on a new design. Whitmill proposed a tribal design inspired by tā moko, a Māori tattoo style. The design is not based on any specific moko and was created directly on Tyson’s face. Tyson saw the tattoo as representing the Māori, whom he described as a “warrior tribe”, and approved of the design, which consists of monochrome spiral shapes above and below his left eye. According to Tyson, it was his idea to use two curved figures rather than one.
What Winwood, 27, hoped to capitalize on was Niyomtrong’s theoretical ring rust. The Thai was making his first start since July 20 of 2022 when he won a comfortable decision over Wanheng Menayothin in one of the most ballyhooed domestic showdowns in Thai boxing heavyweight division rankings history. But the Noongar needed more edges than that to overcome the Thai who won his first major title in his ninth pro fight with a hard-fought decision over Nicaragua’s Carlos Buitrago who was 27-0-1 heading in.
Nel seguente incontro Zhang sconfigge l’inglese Joe Joyce al 6º round per KO Tecnico, dopo che Joyce ha subito un brutto gonfiore all’occhio destro. Il 23 settembre 2023 si verifica il rematch tra i due, un Joyce più lento e più pesante di 11 kg rispetto al primo incontro viene sconfitto nuovamente da Zhang dopo essere stato colpito da un gancio destro al mento.
“Here’s another intriguing fight in a whole series of 2024 interesting matchups. Two big old guys, two big punchers. This could go a number of ways, and I’m hoping its not a boring, plodding affair. My feeling is that it will go to the other side of the coin. It should provide tense, edge-of-the-seat stuff because of the thudding power each possesses. I would not be at all surprised to see each man knocked down in this one. Wilder looked like he was seriously deteriorating in the match against Parker, who boxed smartly. However, Parker has a whole different skillset than Zhang, so I don’t see the Chinese star being able to use the same strategy. In trying to visualize, I see both landing power shots, but Zhang better able to absorb, and eventually knocking out Wilder somewhere around the eighth round.”
For Tyson, the face tattoo serves as a constant reminder of his journey from a troubled past to finding redemption and self-discovery. The tattoo’s bold presence on his face signifies his transformation and the strength he found within himself to overcome adversity.
The victory made it a clean sweep for Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, which was squaring off with rival U.K. promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing in a unique 5 vs. 5 team concept created by Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
It’s not a dragon on his right forearm, it’s a tiger. I worked with the artist who did the tattoo at Diversity tattoo in Las Vegas (right next to the Stratosphere) on the strip near Sahara Street. We were all using stripper names so I never got the artist’s real name. He was a funny guy. He complained once about not having a girlfriend and always having to “pay for it”. Cracked me up!
“Chinese athletes, whether it is martial arts, or boxing, were not very well known internationally. Now, slowly and slowly, we all embark internationally, it is a very good promotion for China’s fans, including the Chinese market and also promotion for China,” he said.
Talking exclusively to DAZN courtesy of Free Bets, Zhang confessed he went into the fight underestimating his opponent and was the reason he didn’t get the job done. “In my opinion, I was too relaxed, and I was too overconfident going into that fight,” he admitted.
Tyson’s face tattoo quickly proved iconic and has become strongly associated with him. Its Māori influence has been controversial, spurring claims of cultural appropriation. In 2011, Whitmill filed a copyright suit against Warner Bros. for using the design on the character Stu Price in The Hangover Part II. Warner Bros. responded with a number of defenses, including that tattoos are not copyrightable; supporting them, scholar David Nimmer argued that it violated the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which prohibits slavery—to give Whitmill copyright over part of Tyson’s body. After initial comments by Judge Catherine D. Perry denying an injunction but affirming that tattoos are copyrightable, Whitmill and Warner Bros. settled for undisclosed terms, without disruption to the release of the film.
Warner Bros. asserted about 16 defenses. They acknowledged that the tattoos were similar but denied that theirs was a copy. They further argued that “tattoos on the skin are not copyrightable”. They reasoned that a human body is a useful article under 17 U.S.C. § 101 and thus not copyrightable. The question of a tattoo’s copyrightability had never been determined by the Supreme Court of the United States. Arguments in the alternative included that Tyson, by allowing them to use his likeness and not objecting to the plot device in The Hangover Part II, had given them an implied license, and that their use of the tattoo constituted fair use as parody because it juxtaposed Tyson as “the epitome of male aggression” with the “milquetoast” Price. Scholar David Nimmer, participating an expert witness for Warner Bros., argued that treating tattoos as copyrightable would violate the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as a badge of slavery; Nimmer’s declaration was then excluded because it was a legal opinion.
