Right Then, Another One
Right then. There is another Mike Tyson documentary coming, and before anyone groans — yes, we have had a few. This one at least looks like it is taking a proper run at it.
Netflix dropped the trailer this morning for a four-part series called simply Tyson, premiering on October 13. Brooklyn upbringing through to becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history, with Netflix billing the whole thing as a portrait of “greatness, fall, and redemption”.
They have also confirmed his one-man stage show, Mike Tyson: Return of the Mike, lands on the platform on November 3. So it is a Tyson autumn whether you fancied one or not.
The Boxing Is The Easy Part
Here is the thing about Tyson documentaries. The fighting section basically makes itself.
You have got the Cus D'Amato years, which is one of the great sporting relationships of the century. You have got the run from 1985 to 1988 where he was genuinely the most frightening thing anybody had ever seen in a heavyweight ring — Trevor Berbick in two, Michael Spinks in ninety-one seconds, a 20-year-old wearing the belts. You have got Tokyo and Buster Douglas, which remains the single biggest upset in the history of the sport.
That footage is unbeatable. It has been cut together a dozen times and it still stops you dead. Any competent editor can make ninety minutes out of it.
The Hard Part Is Everything Else
Make no mistake, that is not what decides whether this series is any good.
What decides it is what happens in parts three and four. The conviction. The prison years. Holyfield and the ear. The bankruptcy. The decades of chaos afterwards. And crucially, whether Netflix let those sections breathe honestly or whether they get rushed through on the way to a warm redemption ending because that is the arc the marketing department signed off on.
Because “greatness, fall, and redemption” is a sentence written by a streaming service, not a life. Tyson's story is far messier than a three-act structure, and the previous attempts that were any good — James Toback's Tyson in 2008 being the obvious one — earned their credibility by letting the man be genuinely difficult rather than conveniently reformed.
What He Is Now
The other complication is that the modern Tyson is a brand as much as a man. Podcast host, entrepreneur, meme, and — as of the Jake Paul business — a 58-year-old man who got in a ring on Netflix and lost a boxing match that should never have been sanctioned as one.
That Netflix are the ones making this documentary is not nothing. They have a commercial relationship with him. That does not automatically make it a puff piece, but it does mean I will be watching for what is missing rather than what is included.
Why It Still Matters
For all that, I will be watching. Of course I will.
Because whatever happened afterwards, for about three years in the late eighties Mike Tyson was the most compelling athlete on the planet, and there is a generation now who only know him as the bloke with the face tattoo off the internet. If four hours of Netflix gets them to sit and watch what he did to Berbick, that is a win for boxing.
Luke's Verdict
I am not going to sit on the fence. My prediction: episodes one and two will be brilliant, episode three will be the best of the lot if they have the nerve, and episode four will pull its punches.
Redemption endings sell subscriptions. Honest ones do not. I would love to be wrong, and I will happily say so on October 14 if I am.
Either way, put it in the diary. October 13 for the series, November 3 for the stage show.
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