Mike Tyson hits out at Nintendo after thinking there’s a new ‘Punch-Out’ game

Former professional boxing star Mike Tyson is no stranger to guest starring in video games – but he feels that one major company has left him out of their upcoming production.

Why is Mike Tyson beefing with Nintendo?

Tyson took shots at major video game developer Nintendo in a Tweet on April 4, claiming that the company had already begun production on a new ‘Punch Out’ game without notifying him.

“Heard Nintendo was doing the new ‘Punch Out’ without even contacting me,” Tyson wrote. “It won’t be the same. My knockouts made the game. That’s wack.”

However, Tyson’s comments come as a confusing surprise to fans, as there is no upcoming ‘Punch Out’ game in production – at least that we know of.

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Unless Tyson leaked an as-yet unheard of game, it appears that the pugilist was referring to the re-release of the classic NES ‘Punch Out’ on the Nintendo Switch, which replaced his final boss fight with an enemy named “Mr. Dream” after their license to use Tyson as a character expired.

Tyson had even Tweeted about being replaced with “Mr. Dream” in a preceding post, writing, “Mr. Dream? everyone tell Nintendo America who they think of when they hear ‘Punch Out.’”

In fact, Tyson was even featured in the original game’s title, which had initially been ‘Mike Tyson’s Punch Out’ before Nintendo decided to mitigate possible legal risks.

Mike Tyson’s run-in with Capcom

Nintendo’s choice to pull Tyson from ‘Punch Out’ wouldn’t be the first time he was removed from a game, either; Capcom notably switched his name from boxer ‘M. Bison’ in Street Fighter II ahead of release, thus changing all three names for its cast of boss characters in the process to avoid a potential lawsuit.

Despite Tyson’s apparent blunder in regards to the Switch re-release, he very well may have heard rumblings of a new ‘Punch Out’ in the works – although no such developments have yet been reported.

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Tyson’s Tweet on the matter has since gone viral, with even the likes of major Twitch streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins flexing his signed copy of the original title in response to the debacle.

Tyson has since poked fun at the situation, even uploading a clip from his podcast where he’d learned about his inspiration for Street Fighter’s original boxer.