Mike Tyson Fights Gambling Company In Court Over Talking Pigeons
Image: Shraga Kopstein/Unsplash
Mike Tyson is fighting a lawsuit from gambling company Rabona in a dispute over talking pigeons. The retired boxer is accused of reneging on a partnership, with his wife Lakiha Spicer claiming he was being made to look ‘ridiculous’.
Rabona’s promoter, Medier, filed a lawsuit against Tyson, alleging he breached a contract signed in 2024. The company had agreed to pay Tyrannic, Tyson’s media brand, $2 million in installments to promote the brand. He received around $190,000 of this before pulling the plug on the agreement.
Medier claims that Tyson’s failure to appear for an agreed-upon livestream and to terminate the deal without proper notice breached the contract he signed.
Talking Pigeons Ad Went Too Far, Claims Mrs. Tyson
As part of the deal, Tyson was due to appear in a livestream on the channel Talking Pigeons.
Spicer said the plans for the appearance went beyond the terms they had agreed upon. A talking pigeon would interview Tyson before he taught the giant bird how to box.
“We wanted to go viral, but in a way that makes him and his brand proud, not a way that makes him look ridiculous,” Spicer told the High Court in London.
The livestream would have appeared on the Instagram channel, ‘Talking Pigeons’, which Rabona sponsored. Medier’s lawyer, Ali Reza Sinai, said the company was clear about the content of the campaign before Tyson signed the deal.
“The name of the channel is ‘Talking Pigeons’. Doesn’t that suggest to you that the pigeon would speak?” Sinai said in court.
“No talking pigeons…no talking trash to pigeons. We had to push back on the theme of pigeons and punching,” said Spicer.
“Mike didn’t sign up to do a show with stuffed animals,” she added. “Mike didn’t sign up for this goofy show.”
Tyson A Self-Declared Pigeon Person
Tyson has been open about his love for pigeons. He owns hundreds of birds kept in multiple coops across the US.
“Pigeon guys, it becomes a part of their soul,” he told Bill Maher in a podcast. “We just have to have our birds.”
“Who does?” Maher asks. “Pigeon people,” replies Tyson.
In the new Netflix documentary TYSON, he says pigeons offered a form of escape from his troubled youth.
“I didn’t want any problems back then,” he says. “I was just a guy who wanted to have fun and fly birds.”
Spicer said the campaign would have made her husband the “butt of the joke” and does not align with how he wants to be represented.
On the deal with Rabona, Tyson said he would bring the same intensity that he brought to the boxing ring.
“Just as I gave my all in the ring, I’m excited to bring that same intensity and spirit to the online gaming world with Rabona,” Tyson stated when announcing the partnership. “Get ready for a gaming experience that packs a punch!”
Jake Paul Fight Real Reason For Breaking Contract, Claims Medier
In court, Sinai claimed the real reason that Tyson withdrew from the partnership was the fight with Jake Paul. After agreeing to fight the YouTuber-turned-boxer for a reported $15 million, Tyson lost interest in promoting Rabona, said Sinai.
The bout with Paul was originally scheduled for July 20, 2024. However, Tyson had previously agreed to attend a gambling conference in Amsterdam representing Rabona between July 16 and 19, 2024.
Sinai argued that the clash meant Tyson chose to pursue the more lucrative deal with Paul and “simply lost interest” in his contract with Medier and Rabona.
“You didn’t want him to do the show because you didn’t want him answering questions about the fight,” he said. “It was not consistent with the PR of the Jake Paul fight.”
The Paul fight was delayed until November, and his wife says the two agreements were mutually exclusive.
“They weren’t conflicting in any way,” she told the court. “We had several other sponsors at the time too.”
The case remains ongoing.
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