Kirkpatrick would eventually die from a heart attack in 1992 while Tyson was behind bars for the aforementioned rape charge. He was said to be “distraught and upset” over Kirkpatrick’s passing, though he didn’t ask for permission to briefly leave the facility so he could attend his dad’s funeral, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In 2019, a year before the official closure of Roc Nation’s boxing division, the Lane brothers negotiated Zhang’s release with Matchroom Boxing USA, which Duva, again, had cut a deal with. In 2024, Zhang’s co-manager recalled his promoter tried to stop him leaving by intimidation, dragging him into legal battles and refusing to line him up in fights. Brothers Tommy and Terry Lane, sons of boxing referee Mills Lane, joined Zhang as advisers and helped guide him out of trouble. It was not clear whether this incident was referring to Zhang’s termination of contract in November 2014 or in 2019.
Zhang and Wilder are both looking to get back in the win column after dropping their last fights—each to Joseph Parker in upset decisions. Wilder lost to Parker in December in 12 rounds and a unanimous decision while Zhang lost his fight to Parker in March in a majority decision.
Zhang Zhilei made history in April when he secured the WBO interim heavyweight title, defeating hometown favorite Joe Joyce. But for the Chinese boxing maverick nicknamed “Big Bang,” the more than 20-year journey to fame and success has been one of hard work, dedication, and considerable personal sacrifice.
In 2020, while Zhang made a rare visit back home the day after Chinese New Year, his father died of a sudden cardiac arrest at home during COVID-19 lockdown in China. Zhang mistakenly believed his father to be choking and attempted the Heimlich maneuver to no avail.
It looked like just another highlight reel Tyson KO except for one detail quickly spotted by viewers: Etienne, lying flat on his back on the canvas with his eyes closed, reached into his mouth to remove his gum shield mid-count.
Michael Gerard Tyson was born on June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Jimmy Kirkpatrick and Lorna Tyson. When Michael was 2 years old, his father abandoned the family, leaving Lorna to care for Michael and his two siblings, Rodney and Denise.
Emerging with New Purpose: When Tyson emerged from prison, he was not the same Man who is the most division in boxing had entered. The physicality of the boxer remained, but there was a newfound depth to his persona. He returned to the ring to reclaim past glories and, as a man, on a mission to redefine his legacy. While flashes of his former prowess surfaced, it was clear that Tyson’s actual fight was no longer in the ring but in the arena of personal growth and redemption.
Tyson did have plenty of talent and raw punching power, but the legendary trainer fine-tuned his craft. D’Amato taught his new protegee the peek-a-boo style; that turned Iron Mike into a capable defensive fighter who was able to withstand his opponent’s advances before sending them to the canvass.
After the 2008 Olympics, Dino Duva built relationships with the National Boxing and Taekwondo Center of the Department of Sports of China and obtained exclusive rights to market all Chinese boxers. As a result, Chinese boxers had little freedom to choose an alternative promoter. On March 10, 2014, the 31-year-old Zhang signed a four-year contract with Dynasty Boxing, a company 50% owned by Duva. Zhang was Dynasty’s first signing and Zhang had only one fight under Dynasty Boxing. Dynasty went bankrupt and closed down in December 2014.
From 1992 to 1995, while in prison for the rape of Desiree Washington, Tyson read a large number of books, including works by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong. Spike Lee sent Tyson a copy of tennis player Arthur Ashe’s deathbed memoir, Days of Grace. Tyson was moved by the book and respected Ashe’s ability to be nonconfrontational and admired his political views and his success as a black athlete in a white-dominated world. Tyson got prison tattoos of both men on his biceps: A portrait of Mao, captioned with “Mao” in all-caps, on the left; a portrait of Ashe beneath the words “Days of Grace” on the right. Gerald Early views the Mao and Ashe tattoos as together “symboliz both newfound self-control and his revision of black cool”, with Mao representing strength and authority. Clifton Brown in The New York Times describes the Ashe tattoo as “a contradiction” with Tyson’s “fits of rage”. Early and biographer Richard Hoffer cast the two bicep tattoos as an unusual combination of, in Hoffer’s words, “alternate icons”.
.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-parser-output .citation:target ^Note 1 For WBO interim heavyweight title ^Note 2 For vacant WBC interim lightweight title ^Note 3 For Commonwealth Boxing Council and WBC International Silver lightweight titles ^Note 4 For British middleweight title
Now that Zhang has solidified his title, legitimized himself in the eyes of many in the boxing world, by undoing a fighter like Joe Joyce so comprehensively, it is perhaps time for him to get his just reward. With a long and illustrious career behind him, Zhang has always found as a professional that the big-money fights, and the world title shots, eluded him. It would be hard to keep him off the list of challengers now.