The much anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson shattered records with a reported 65 million households tuning in during the peak of the fight. I watched the boxing match live in China and there is one thing that many in China immediately noticed – the massive image of China’s leader, Mao Zedong, on the right arm of Mike Tyson.
Why would boxer Mike Tyson have a tattoo of one of the most notorious murderers in history, who shadows even Hitler when it comes to the sheer number of people he killed?
Tyson tells the story in a rare interview about it online, saying he was given books about Mao Zedong while he was in prison in the 1990s after he was convicted of abusing an 18-year-old girl.
When asked about the tattoo, he responded saying, “I was just fascinated and think they were awesome individuals and stuff.”
When asked about the effect that Mao had on him, he said, reading the books about Mao Zedong helped him to better understand “how to better myself and strengthen myself for revenge.”
Unfortunately, Mike Tyson is not the only one in modern society who seems to admire Mao Zedong. Mao’s “Little Red Book” has been extremely popular among college students recently, as well as radical socialist movements in the west like the Black Lives Matter movement.
The boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul was a masterclass in competition and capitalism – both of which were viciously attacked in Mao’s China. Mike Tyson would not have been allowed to box in Mao’s China where coaches were attacked, beaten, and in some cases executed. Under Mao Zedong, boxing was banned.
Mike Tyson would have faired even worse as a prisoner in Mao’s China where most prisoners were starved, worked like slaves, and eventually died. Instead, Mike Tyson was sentenced to ten years for rape and was out after only three years – all of which was served out at the Indiana Youth Center, where he was placed for his safety.
It is sad that so few people today, including Christians, understand the real history of Mao Zedong. If the sports icons like Mike Tyson continue to promote leaders like Mao Zedong, the world might again see another rise of an anti-Christian mass murderer.
