Accusing Hulu For Stealing His Life Story, Mike Tyson: I Was A Black Man Sold At Auction

Mike Tyson (Photo: Reuters via ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has accused unlicensed television dramas of stealing his life story with "Mike" set to air in the US on August 25, replaying moments from the fighter's controversial life.

Hulu, which is only available in the United States, is largely owned by Disney. The series they created depicts Tyson being bullied as a child, a teenage life in which he goes in and out of prison after joining a Brooklyn street gang and starting boxing.

While the eight-part series shows how Tyson acts in the ring in famous fights, the story also focuses on his turbulent personal life.

An episode focuses on Desiree Washington, the beauty pageant contestant who accused Tyson of rape in 1991. The boxer was convicted the following year and jailed for three years.

The episode recounts the incident of rape in an Indianapolis hotel room, and the trial from Washington's point of view and narrative.

Tyson was angry that his life story was serialized without confirmation and payment. "Hulu is a streaming version of the slave masters. They stole my story and didn't pay me," Tyson wrote on Instagram, quoted by AFP.

"I don't support their story of my life. It's not 1822. It's 2022. They stole my life story and didn't pay me."

"To Hulu executives I'm just a black person who can be sold at auction," he wrote.

Screenwriter and creator Steven Rogers said filmmakers actually "couldn't talk to" Tyson because "his life's copyright had been taken" by another project.

But on the other hand, he says "I don't like depending on only one source".

"I like to research and get different opinions and then make a story out of it," he told the Television Critics Association panel.

"I don't like being tied to just one person," he added.