IIt was in March 1995 that Mike Tyson was released from an Indiana prison, having served less than three years of the six-year sentence he was given when he was convicted of rape. Tyson, then 25, was arrested in July 1991 for attacking Desiree Washington, 18, in a hotel room. Although he maintained his innocence, Tyson was convicted and, under federal law, is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The case attracted widespread publicity and condemnation, but Tyson fought again after his release, regaining his world heavyweight title and causing even more controversy when he bit off part of the ear of Evander Holyfield in full combat.

And now, almost 20 years later, Tyson, 58, is set to take home his biggest boxing payday to date. Thanks to streaming giant Netflix, he will step into the ring this weekend for an $80 million live fight with YouTube star Jake Paul.

All of which begs the question: In 2024, seven years after the rise of the #MeToo movement, why is the career of the most famous convicted rapist still thriving?

Tyson was often described as “manipulative” by those who worked with him. Regarding his conviction, he certainly never showed any remorse.

“I hate her guts,” he said of Washington in 2003. “She put me in this state, where I don’t know. I really wish I had done it now. But now I really want to rape her.

Tyson also reportedly said he had done “four or five things worse than what I’m accused of.” To eliminate any potential uncertainty – four or five things worse than rape.

It was the revelation of Harvey Weinstein’s brutal and predatory behavior that largely contributed to drawing attention to the #MeToo movement. In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for two sex crimes, and he will likely die there. But if that changed, it’s impossible to think he could rebuild his career.

In 2022, Bill Cosby discussed touring again after his sexual assault conviction was overturned and he was released after three years in prison. He hasn’t done it yet.

In 2023, Kevin Spacey was cleared of sexual assault charges, but his career shows no signs of returning to its previous heights.

Tyson, by comparison, was not only forgiven, but he reaped increasing rewards. In his first fight after his release from prison against Peter McNeeley – a considerably less attractive opponent than Tyson had long been accustomed to – he received a career-high $25 million.

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His opponent Saturday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Jake Paul, 27, was born in January 1997 and is unfortunately one of the spokespeople for Generation Z.

Paul, in his capacity as Most Valuable Promotions, his own company, is now seen as a positive for women’s boxing, largely because of his influence on the career of Amanda Serrano, the world champion featherweight boxer and martial artist. mixed.

In other words, many of those watching on Saturday – and Netflix has invested heavily in becoming streamers – will be born after Tyson was released from prison and will be tuning in primarily to Paul. But there are many others who will be there to see Tyson, well aware of his conviction and continuing to romanticize their memories of him in his intimidating and always entertaining heyday.

Tyson’s broader rehabilitation was aided in large part by his cameo role in the 2009 trite comedy. Hangover. This followed the 2008 feature-length documentary Tysonin which he struggled, through tears and a voice cracking with emotion, to reflect on the influence of his former trainer and mentor Cus D’Amato, who died when Tyson was 19. A 2009 headline even described him as “cuddly” and “a changed man.”

One of the stories in Tyson’s current mythology concerns the extent of his suffering. He was born and raised in the harshest conditions in Brownsville, Brooklyn; he was bullied as a child; in 2014 he told how he was sexually abused at the age of seven; As an adult, he was manipulated and exploited by evil boxing promoter Don King.

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Observers of Tyson’s career often wonder what that career might have been like if D’Amato had lived to guide him, or if he had not fallen into King’s Machiavellian clutches.

Just as Tyson couldn’t have been prepared for everything the world was going to throw at him, there was no way Washington could have prepared for Tyson. Nor is there any way that Tyson will continue to insist that she was never raped in his attempts to recover from her trauma.

In his memoirs, An undisputed truthpublished in 2013, it recounts the preparations for his trial.

“I spent the better part of the six weeks between my rape conviction and sentencing traveling around the country and romancing all my different girlfriends,” the prologue begins. “It was my way of saying goodbye to them. And when I wasn’t with them, I rejected every woman who propositioned me. Everywhere I went, there were women coming up to me and saying, “Come on, I’m not going to say you raped me. You can come with me. I’ll let you film it.

“I realized later that it was their way of saying, ‘We don’t think you did it.’ But I didn’t take it that way. I would retaliate indignantly with a rude response. Even though they were saying what they were saying as a sign of support, I was in too much pain to realize it. I was an ignorant, crazy, bitter guy who had a lot of growing up to do.

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But the boxing world now seems little interested in Tyson’s past.

On the undercard of the Tyson vs. Paul fight, Katie Taylor will defend her undisputed junior welterweight title against Serrano. Their first fight, in April 2022, as the main event at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden, is among the most famous of the modern era.

The rematch is cynically used to help legitimize the ill-advised main event that will nonetheless attract millions of spectators around the world.

And while all of this is happening, Tyson’s legal team is preparing to pursue an ongoing civil suit accusing Tyson of raping and assaulting a woman more than 30 years ago. The claim – denied by Tyson – was initially filed in January 2023, before there was any suggestion of a fight between him and Paul and a bumper payday.

Paul is a successful entrepreneur and has identified Tyson as a marketable opponent, raising questions about how much of a positive this actually makes him for women in their sport.

For Tyson, does the interest in Saturday’s fight also mean the world has forgotten who he was? If not, what does that say about the fans and broadcasters who are willing to fund such an event?