Mike Tyson and his wife are sued for £1.5m after he pulled out of gambling ad campaign because he didn’t want to appear on screen with a giant talking pigeon

DAILYMAIL.COM • 1h ago

By OLIVIA DAY, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR, AUSTRALIA 16:22 14 Oct 2026, updated 16:29 14 Oct 2026

Mike Tyson and his wife are being sued for £1.5million after the boxing legend refused to appear alongside a talking pigeon in a gambling campaign.

The former heavyweight, 60, is being sued in London’s High Court by promoters for the Rabona online gaming brand, Medier Ltd.

They claim Tyson and his company Tyrannic LLC – which is controlled by his wife Lakiha Spicer – breached a contract for a January 2024 sponsorship deal.

The boxer is accused of unlawfully pulling out of the campaign after learning he would fight YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a £15million exhibition match.

Tyson was beaten by Paul, then 27, in a fight that was streamed globally on Netflix. He later said that he had ‘no regrets to get in the ring one last time’.

The court heard Tyson’s Netflix deal to fight the YouTube star was originally slated for July 20, 2024, before it was pushed back to November.

The deal agreed with Rabona stipulated that Tyson would attend a ‘PR event’ at a high-profile gambling conference in Amsterdam between July 16-19, 2024.

Medier’s barrister claimed the ‘inference’ was that Tyson and Tyrannic feared that participating in the conference would be in conflict with the terms of his Netflix deal, which banned non-fight related sponsorship in the build-up to the clash.

Tyson and Tyrannic deny breach of contract and instead claim Medier went beyond the terms of the boxer’s contract by requiring him to star alongside a giant pigeon.

The ‘Talking Pigeons’ livestream would have seen Tyson deliver scripted lines with four presenters, one dressed as a pigeon, and ‘share childhood stories’.

He would then teach the presenters how to box using a mannequin with the face of his former rival, Evander Holyfield, on it and play casino games on Rabona’s website.

Tyson’s fondness for racing pigeons has been well documented over the years.

In his autobiography he detailed how his love for the birds 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.

But Tyson’s lawyers said the ‘performance’ demanded of the boxer went ‘far beyond’ what was required to comply with his contract, which the boxer says was limited to playing casino games or other approved games from the company’s website.

Mr Justice Richards heard Tyson’s contract with Medier involved an instalment-based £1.5million fee, payable to Tyrannic, of which the former boxer was paid nearly £145,000 before they parted company.

Barrister Ali Reza Sinai, for Medier, argued Tyson and Tyrannic had breached the contract by failing to perform the agreed live-streaming events and by ‘terminating’ the contract without proper notice.

He labelled Tyson’s Netflix deal as the ‘elephant in the room’ and argued the boxer had ‘simply lost interest’ in the less lucrative Rabona deal.

He argued there was ‘a clear and significant risk’ that Tyson would be viewed as being in breach of the Netflix agreement by the event in Amsterdam.

He told the court: ‘Thus the defendants simply lost interest in the service agreement once the more rewarding exhibition fight was firmly agreed. The performance of the service agreement became inconvenient for Tyrannic and Mr Tyson.’

Barrister Amanda Hadkiss, for Tyson, said the nature of the performance he would provide, and which Tyrannic was contractually obliged to provide, was clear.

She said: ‘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’.’

However, Ms Hadkiss said the ‘Talking Pigeons’ video show was ‘both of a very different nature to and exceeded the scope of the performance [the contract] required that Mr Tyson would provide.’

The barrister continued: ‘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.’

Tyson inspired fear among the heavyweight ranks due to his intensely dynamic style of movement and sheer power, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion ever aged 20 in 1986. He quit top tier boxing with 50 wins and seven losses.

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