New Zealand Bars Mike Tyson

Women's rights groups object to his visit

Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson has been barred from New Zealand, where he planned to give a talk and meet the Maori people who inspired his infamous facial tattoo.

Iron Mike had initially been given permission to enter New Zealand because a children's charity would have benefited from the proceeds of his appearance. But that charity, the Life Education Trust, removed its support this week over concerns about Tyson's character. Women's rights groups in particular objected to Tyson's visa because of his 1991 conviction for rape.

Tyson's planned trip down under is also in question because Australia has a strict character test for visa applicants that can exclude people who have spent more than a year in prison. It's unclear if it includes a clause about ear biting as well.

Comments

[Scott Lahti]

My favorite Mike Tyson story, via a 1999 review in The Times Literary Supplement by Colin McGinn of A.J. Ayer: A Biography by Ben Rogers:

Late in life, when he was 77, A. J. Ayer was at a party in New York, given by Fernando Sanchez, an ultra-fashionable underwear designer, when a woman rushed in to report that her friend was being assaulted in another room. Abandoning the young models, with whom he was no doubt enjoying a philosophical discussion about logical positivism and the significance of the thong, Ayer went to investigate, finding an aroused Mike Tyson forcing himself on a distraught Naomi Campbell. Ayer warned Tyson to desist. Tyson retorted: "Do you know who the **** I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world." Ayer stood fast and replied: "I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field; I suggest we talk about this like rational men." They began to talk, doubtless about the knockout power of the verification principle, while Ms Campbell slipped safely away...