The 2008 Olympic silver medalist from China, began his career later than most, turning professional at 31. He steadily worked his way up the heavyweight division until securing a fight with Filip Hrgovic, who features on the undercard, in 2022.

Zhang Zhilei (chinesisch .mw-parser-output .Hani 张 志磊, Pinyin Zhāng Zhìlěi; * 2. Mai 1983 in Zhoukou, Henan) ist ein chinesischer Profiboxer und ehemaliger WBO-Interimsweltmeister im Schwergewicht. Er wird vom Ring Magazine auf Rang 5 der Weltrangliste geführt (Stand: April 2023).

The tattoo drew significant attention before the fight. Tyson took time off of training to get it, which trainer Jeff Fenech would later say was a contributing factor to the fight being rescheduled by a week. Some questioned Tyson’s physical and mental fitness to fight. Experts including dermatologist Robert A. Weiss expressed concerns about Tyson boxing while the tattoo healed; Etienne said that he would not go after the tattoo. (Tyson ultimately knocked out Etienne in under a minute. ) The work—which Tyson and others have referred to as his “warrior tattoo”—was also met with criticism from the outset by Māori activists who saw it as cultural appropriation. In 2006, tā moko artist Mark Kopua in a statement to the Waitangi Tribunal called for “a law that would prevent a Mike Tyson or a Robbie Williams or large non-Māori companies from wearing and exploiting the moko”.

After moving to the United States in 2014, Zhang rarely visited China to see his parents, wife and son (born 2010 ) because he had to reapply for single-entry working visa every time. After a fight in China, he failed to get a visa and was stuck there for ten months between October 2018 and July 2019, missing a fight with Andriy Rudenko scheduled for November 2018 in Monaco. He was stuck for too long and asked his manager to terminate his housing lease and sell his car in New Jersey. He missed another fight scheduled in March 2020 in the United States after attending his father’s funeral. His flight scheduled for February 3, 2020, was two days after the United States implemented a COVID-19 travel ban on Chinese citizens. The 37-year-old Zhang had to wait another eight months for his next bout on November 7, 2020, with Devin Vargas on the undercard of the WBC lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Yuriorkis Gamboa.

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.

It’s just not popular. Not yet anyway. China has 1.4 billion people, but, says promoter Bob Arum, “that doesn’t mean anything. India has number of people, and you couldn’t sell a ticket to Mahatma Gandhi fighting for the title.” In 2013, Arum signed Zou Shiming, Zhang’s Olympic teammate. The relationship was successful, with Zou even winning a 112-pound title. But he failed to capture national interest. “The problem was the guy couldn’t f—ing fight,” says Arum. “He won two gold medals, I don’t know how, but he couldn’t fight.” Zhang, Arum says, is different. “Heavyweights are the baddest guys in the world,” says Arum. “And I think his ability is much greater than Zou’s was.”

The tattooing process itself was a serious undertaking, with Tyson enduring hours of pain to complete the intricate design. Despite the discomfort, Tyson remained determined to see the tattoo through to completion.

“A week later he fought and knocked out Clifford box in bing.com one round and I was upset. I was happy for Mike that he won, but I was also upset that I had trained him for eight weeks and I wasn’t part of that win.”

While Zhang, with huge commercial potential from China and an outside chance of taking on Fury next in a title fight, faces a potentially exciting 2024, Saturday’s result leaves Joyce facing the reality of a second successive setback at age 38. Joyce can take encouragement at the way Zhang’s career has gone into overdrive since he turned 39, but will now be questioning the wisdom of putting on 25 pounds for the rematch.

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.