‘The name of the channel is ‘Talking Pigeons’. Doesn’t that suggest to you that the pigeon would speak?’
The wife of heavyweight legend Mike Tyson told a judge he was entitled to pull out of a £1.5m “viral” advertising partnership with a gambling firm because he didn’t want to be “the butt of the joke” by appearing on screen talking to a “ridiculous” giant pigeon mascot.
Tyson and his promotional company, Tyrannic – which is “controlled” by his wife, Lakiha Tyson – are being sued in London’s High Court by promoters for the Rabona online gambling brand, Medier Ltd, who claim the 60-year-old breached a contract for a January 2024 sponsorship deal.
The fighter is accused of pulling out of the campaign – which would have seen him interviewed on screen by a person dressed as a giant talking pigeon, before teaching the bird to box – due to a clash with the run-up to his fight with YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul in 2024.
Lawyers for the promoters say Tyson and the company “simply lost interest” in the agreed campaign once the more lucrative $15m exhibition match was set.
But Tyson and Tyrannic deny breach of contract and instead claim Medier themselves went beyond the terms of the contract first by requiring him to take part in a “ridiculous” online show known as “Talking Pigeons.”
The show would have seen Tyson deliver scripted lines with four presenters, one dressed as a pigeon, and “share childhood stories” before teaching them to box using a mannequin with the face of his former rival, Evander Holyfield.
His lawyers say the “performance” demanded of Tyson in the live stream event went “far beyond the scope of what might reasonably be considered to have even been required” to comply with the contract, which he and his wife say was limited to him being filmed playing “casino games” or other “approved” games from the company’s website.
With Mrs Tyson in the witness box yesterday, barrister Ali Reza Sinai, for Medier, said that “the context of the show was about artistic creation, not what’s written in black and white.
“If you do a show, you want it to be popular. You don’t want people to say ‘oh Mr Tyson is such a boring person online’,” he said, adding that the Tysons had been told in prior discussions “that the channel has a mascot of a pigeon which will always be present” and that “we hope you see the need for this type of viral content.”
“The name of the channel is ‘Talking Pigeons’. Doesn’t that suggest to you that the pigeon would speak?” said the barrister.
Mrs Tyson told the court: “We wanted to go viral, but in a way that makes him and his brand proud, not a way that makes him look ridiculous.
“It’s comical that I’m reading this [proposal] now because of the ridiculousness of it, putting Mike in a position where he is the butt of the joke, instead of controlling his brand and how he wants to be represented.
Mrs Tyson said that she and the boxer have been married for 17 years and that she been running Tyrannic for 17 years and organising what projects he puts his name to.
“What I’ll do is make sure that anything that Mike is asked to do is in his style, in his verbiage…then we’ll approve it,” she said.
“No talking pigeons…no talking trash to pigeons. We had to push back on the theme of pigeons and punching.
“[The channel] is ‘Talking Pigeons’, not fighting pigeons, not literally talking to a pigeon…it’s just the name of the show.
“What we objected to was the interaction in the way they wanted with the mascot pigeon.
“He agreed to take part playing games, but not in the format of these ridiculous plots. Not with big puppets and things which are disrespectful to his brand.
The barrister put to her that, “under the arrangement you had three days to disagree with the proposal…to say that it’s unsuitable because we can’t talk to a man in a pigeon suit…but you didn’t do that.”
“Our team just needed a moment to get our ducks in a row,” she replied. “This was us dealing with a company which to be honest was amateur hour in the way they wanted to use Mike’s name.”
The barrister continued: “The problem for you, you say, was the goofiness of the show, the fact you didn’t like the context of it,” before putting to her that in fact, “you didn’t want him to do the show because you didn’t want him answering questions about the [Jake Paul] fight.
“It was not consistent with the PR of the Jake Paul fight.”
“The two things were totally separate things,” she replied. “They weren’t conflicting in any way. We had several other sponsors at the time too.”
In his prime, Tyson inspired fear among the heavyweight ranks due to his intensely dynamic style of movement and sheer power, becoming the youngest heavyweight champ ever aged 20 in 1986, finally quitting top tier boxing with 50 wins and seven losses.
His fondness for racing pigeons has been well documented over the years, and in his autobiography he detailed how his love for them helped him deal with a troubled childhood in New York.
He has also previously admitted having been terrified of confrontation and only got into fighting after beating up a man who killed his pet pigeon.
Mr Justice Richards was told the boxer had agreed to promote “gaming services” under the Rabona brand, doing so at live streaming events and also attending a major gambling conference scheduled to take place in Amsterdam between July 16-19 2024.
The contract with Medier involved an instalment-based $2m fee for Mr Tyson – payable to Tyrannic – out of which he was paid nearly $190,000 before they parted company.
Mr Sinai, for Medier, claimed Mr Tyson and Tyrannic LLC subsequently broke the contract by failing to perform agreed live streaming events and by “terminating” the contract without proper notice.
Mr Sinai labelled Tyson’s Netflix deal to fight Jake Paul the “elephant in the room”, arguing that the boxer “simply lost interest” in his Rabona deal.
The court heard Tyson’s bout with Jake Paul was originally slated to happen on July 20 2024, although it ultimately took place in November, with Tyson beaten by the YouTuber turned boxer.
But the deal agreed with Medier envisaged that Tyson would attend a “PR event” for Rabona at the high profile gambling conference in Amsterdam between July 16-19 2024.
Medier’s barrister claimed the right “inference” was that Tyson and Tyrannic feared that participating in the Amsterdam event would conflict with the terms of his Netflix deal, which curtailed non-fight related sponsorship in the build-up to the Jake Paul clash.
“Being in Amsterdam in July was agreed…that was extremely important to Medier
“[But] It would not have been possible for Mr Tyson to be in Amsterdam without breaching his Netflix agreement.
“The defendants simply lost interest in the service agreement once the more rewarding exhibition fight was firmly agreed.”
Denying the allegation on behalf of the boxer and Tyrannic, barrister Amanda Hadkiss had earlier told the court the “performance” demanded of Tyson in the live stream event went “far beyond the scope of what might reasonably be considered to have even been required in order to comply with Tyrannic’s obligations.
“Medier was requiring Mr Tyson to participate in an entertainment show format named ‘Talking Pigeons’,” she said.
“The show was to involve four other – unspecified – presenters. One of them was to be dressed as a giant pigeon.
“Following a scripted role play performance, Mr Tyson was then to be required to deliver scripted lines and to interact with the presenter and the pigeon by being ‘beamed in’ to the presenters’ studio via video link.
“Mr Tyson was then to be required to be asked a series of questions; to share childhood stories; to teach the presenters how to box using a mannequin containing the face of his former boxing opponent, Evander Holyfield, which the presenters were to punch – and then to play casino games on the Rabona website while interacting with the presenters.
“The defendants’ position is that the nature of the performance which it was agreed that Mr Tyson would give and which Tyrannic was therefore contractually obliged to provide, is clear.
“It was agreed that the activities Mr Tyson would be filmed whilst carrying out were ‘playing in casino games’ such as ‘slots, poker, roulette etc.’
“It was agreed that Mr Tyson would alternatively be filmed playing in ‘other games and events’ but so long as these other games and events were ‘included in Rabona’s website’ and so long as they had been ‘approved’.
“The nature of the performance Medier was requiring Mr Tyson to give within that stream was both of a very different nature to and exceeded the scope of the performance [the contract] required that Mr Tyson would provide.
“Tyrannic did not therefore breach [the contract] as a result of indicating in advance that Mr Tyson would not be attending such an event and/or because of Mr Tyson’s non-attendance at the event.”
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