Yahoo Finance Mike Tyson will face off against a shark in 'Tyson vs. Jaws' Shark Week special
Mike Tyson has lined up his first fight since announcing “I’m back” on Instagram in May. Who will the Hall of Fame boxer be facing? Oh, just Jaws.
Well, it’s not actually Jaws, since no real sharks were involved in the making of that film. But Tyson, 54, will be facing off against an actual shark in a special set to kick off Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week. It’s called “Tyson vs. Jaws: Rumble on the Reef,” and there’s even a delightful, Tyson-filled trailer.
Who you got in @MikeTyson vs. Jaws?
The heavyweight champ joins #SharkWeek August 9 on @Discovery. pic.twitter.com/Ffq6IkRlY9— Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 15, 2020
Iron Mike punching a surf board and breaking it in half! Iron Mike knocking down a shark cage! Iron Mike trying to blow up a raft! This trailer has it all, including a joke about Tyson’s history of biting people during boxing matches. (Well, he bit just the one guy, but that seems like enough to call it a history — especially since the vast majority of boxers have bitten zero people in the ring.)
There’s a lot of Tyson in the trailer, but no sharks, so we still don’t really know what Tyson will be doing with a shark during the special. Via Entertainment Weekly, Discovery Channel has said that no sharks were harmed during the making of the special. And since Tyson is still alive and presumably unharmed, it seems unlikely that Tyson will be physically fighting a real shark.
Whatever he’ll be doing, Tyson is taking a philosophical approach. From Entertainment Weekly:
“I took on this challenger to overcome fears I still deal with in life,” said Tyson in a statement. “I equate this with overcoming my fear of getting back into the ring at 54 years old. I learned from this experience doing Shark Week that whatever intimidates me, I am still able to step up to the challenge of overcoming anything that would prevent me from accomplishing my life’s mission of reaching my highest potential in life and bringing me closer to God.”
Encountering a shark would certainly bring most people closer to God, but Tyson means it in the spiritual sense and not in the “I just got eaten by a shark” kind of way.
“Tyson vs. Jaws: Rumble on the Reef” is scheduled to premiere on Aug. 9 on the Discovery Channel, so we won’t have to wait too long to see just how Tyson goes about facing down a shark and his own deep-seated fears about getting older.
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