Perhaps the most famous of Tyson’s tattoos is the tribal design that swathes the left side of his face. Inked in 2003, shortly before a comeback fight against Clifford Etienne, this tattoo was a spontaneous decision that Tyson made during a turbulent period in his life.

His defensive abilities matched his offensive arsenal. Tyson mastered slipping punches using subtle head movements that left adversaries swinging at air. Combined with weaving under punches and precise blocks, Tyson was an elusive target.

Some tā moko artists differed, seeing it not as appropriative of moko but rather a hybrid of several tattoo styles; Rangi Kipa saw no Māori elements at all. The perspective of those like Te Awekotuku highlights the conflict between Māori conception of moko—which reflect a person’s genealogy—as collective property and the Anglo-American view of copyright as belonging to a single person. While Warner Bros. initially said they would investigate whether the tattoo was a derivative of any Māori works, there was no further discussion of the matter prior to the case settling.

However, his career was marred by scandals, including imprisonment and rape accusations, which took a significant toll on his public persona. Despite these difficulties, Tyson managed to rebuild his reputation, becoming a successful businessman, actor, and popular media figure. His charisma, outspokenness and transformational ability continue to inspire fans around the world, making him a truly iconic figure.

While Taylor vs. Serrano is confirmed for the new date, the promoters have not yet said whether the other two fights will also move, though a fight between Brazilian YouTuber Whindersson Nunes and professional boxer Neeraj Goyat is set for the event.

The bout was first scheduled for July 20 but was postponed after Tyson, who had a scare on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on May 26, and needed to receive medical attention, was advised to rest and to not return to training for a few weeks.

What is the effect of the copy on the potential market value of the copyrighted work? Presumably, with increased publicity from the movie, more people would recognize the Tyson tattoo and thus Whitmill’s work, raising its market value. However, pirate tattoo artists (not the peg-legged kind) may diminish the value of the design by creating copies for customers without paying royalties to or being licensed by Whitmill. If Whitmill made his copyright ownership known, that could increase the value of the work. And that’s exactly what he’s done with this lawsuit.

He wasn’t bored. He wasn’t trying to be different. Mike Tyson once admitted that the unique tattoo that covers the left side of his face happened because he hated himself so much. The former heavyweight champion of the world has been on an emotional rollercoaster throughout his life. He decided to ink up his face during one of the lower points in his life.

“I thought it was so hot. I would be in these dens, these clubs and strip places sometimes and all the girls said ‘oh you are very exotic, where are you from? Where did your family come from? Why did you put this tattoo on your face?’

“If the design was merely ‘Maori style’ or ‘Maori-influenced,’ it would be original,” said Lionel Bently, an international intellectual property law professor at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. “But if it was slavishly copied from an existing Maori design, it would not be original to the tattooist. The Tyson (tattoo) case raises more fundamental questions too, about whether the permission of the Maori people ought to be needed to create the tattoo or include it in the film.”

Bradley Cooper said that “logistically, to get from point A to point B incredibly difficult and the bureaucracy and getting things done. There are always tons of people around the set and Todd loves a lean set and it was always the opposite, so watching a director deal with that—especially when it was Todd Phillips—was interesting.” He then went on to say, see in yahoo.com a later part of the interview, that “it was the hardest shoot that I had ever done, that Zach had ever done, that Ed had ever done and that Todd had ever done.”

In addition to making a tremendous impact on the world of boxing, Tyson also made an impression on tattooing. In 2003, Tyson got his now-infamous tribal face tattoo, which he got to represent his status as a warrior. In 2011, “The Hangover Part II” directly copied Tyson’s tattoo, which led his artist S. Victor Whitmill to file a copyright lawsuit against Warner Bros. Two months later, Warner Bros. settled the lawsuit, although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed to the public. This inspired other artists to file copyright lawsuits against media companies that replicated their tattoos, as seen most recently between tattooers and NBA video games.

The decision to get the face tattoo would be emblematic of this ultimately troubled period of Tyson’s life, and reflect on his future choices. In the years since Tyson retired, he’s more or less rehabilitated his public image as a troubled brute by being open in interviews, with self-deprecating humor, and getting involved in some cheesy B-movies, such as 2017’s legendarily cringetastic China Salesmen (prepare to facepalm your way through the fight with Stephen Seagal, viewable on YouTube). Tyson has started his own weed empire, Tyson Holistic, which, according to the Sun, earns more than $675,000 a month. Tyson himself reportedly cuts into his profit margins quite a bit by consuming (with his friends) $40,000’s worth every month at his Tyson Ranch in Mojave Desert, as Marketwatch says. He’s also talked about building a cannabis-themed resort.