New miniseries: Jamie Foxx is supposed to play boxer Mike Tyson in miniseries

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Mike Tyson (2019);

Jamie Foxx (2017)

Photo: Willy Sanjuan, Richard Shotwell / dpa

Mike Tyson is one of the best-known, but also most controversial, exceptional athletes of the past decades.

At the age of 20 he became the youngest heavyweight world champion in history in 1986 with a knockout victory over WBC world champion Trevor Berbick.

His freak out at the 1997 World Cup match, when he bit off part of the ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield, was legendary.

In his autobiography, published in 2013, he then wrote bluntly about his sex and drug addiction.

Now a miniseries about the life of the boxer is planned.

As reported by “Variety” and “Hollywood Reporter”, Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”, “The Equalizer”) is to direct the project.

"I've wanted to tell my story for a long time," the industry papers quoted from a message from Tyson.

Now that he is back in the ring, the perfect time has come.

Director Martin Scorsese, who once directed the feature film "Wie ein Wilder Stier" about the boxer Jake LaMotta, Foxx and Tyson are on board as executive producers for the series "Tyson".

Oscar winner Foxx ("Ray", "Baby Driver") had already reported last summer that he was training vigorously for the boxer role with pull-ups and push-ups.

At that time, a feature film biopic was planned that will now become a TV format.

It was only in February that the streaming service Hulu announced the mini-series "Iron Mike" about Tyson's life.

However, the boxer had sharply criticized the unauthorized project.

"I, Tonya" director Craig Gillespie is to direct the eight-part Hulu series.

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ala / dpa