Mike Tyson Tells It Himself

Netflix's four-part TYSON, directed by Floyd Russ, is streaming now: what each episode covers, who made it and what to watch next.

By Casie Stewart October 12, 2026 5 min read

Photo: Netflix

Few athletes have lived as publicly as Mike Tyson. On Tuesday 13 Oct, Netflix put his life on the record in its own way: TYSON, a four-part documentary series that the streamer says explores the life of “one of the most feared and fascinating figures in sports history.”

What the series covers

When Netflix first announced the project in December 2024, it framed the series around Tyson’s rise, his imprisonment, his public struggles and what it called his redemption. Netflix notes that Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986, at the age of 20.

The announcement came weeks after Tyson’s bout with Jake Paul, which Netflix says was the most-streamed global sporting event of all time. At the time, Netflix described the project as a three-episode series. The series’ title page now lists it as four parts, and Netflix rates it TV-MA.

Tyson himself sounded ready for the scrutiny. “Most people are too scared to look at their lives objectively,” he said in Netflix’s announcement. “We have to be able to face the man in the mirror.” He added: “Netflix is the perfect platform to tell my story because of their global reach.”

Who made it

Floyd Russ directs and executive produces. Netflix lists his credits as Untold: Malice at the Palace, American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing and Zion.

The series comes from EverWonder Studio, DLP Media Group and Five All In The Fifth. Netflix lists the executive producers as Ian Orefice of EverWonder Studio, Jim Gray of Scratchy Productions, Michael Hughes and Greg C. Lake of DLP Media Group, and Douglas Banker of Five All In The Fifth.

It joins a long run of Netflix sports documentaries, including Quarterback, Receiver, Starting 5, Simone Biles Rising and Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Netflix has released an official trailer on its YouTube channel.

Also new on Netflix this week

Netflix’s October schedule puts TYSON in a busy few days:

Mon 12 Oct: Free Leonard Peltier, a documentary on the campaign to free the American Indian Movement leader, and Wayne, season one, in which a 16-year-old travels from Massachusetts to Florida to reclaim his late father’s stolen car.
Tue 13 Oct: Solar Opposites, season six, and The Trap, about an author who has not left her house in 10 years and spots her sister’s killer on television.
Wed 14 Oct: Love Is Blind, season 11, with hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey.

Episode by episode

All four parts have been streaming since Tuesday 13 October, and they run long: a little over four hours in total. Netflix’s title page lists them as follows.

Power (1 hr 4 min): his early life, including repeated arrests by the age of 13, and his meeting with the trainer Cus D’Amato.
Greed (1 hr): the climb to the top of boxing, then a troubled marriage, a manipulative promoter and personal vices.
Trust (1 hr 6 min): his attempt to win back the title after a defeat, derailed by a criminal conviction and a prison sentence.
Human (1 hr 13 min): life after the “Bite Fight”, from retirement to reinvention and recovery.

Netflix files the series under biographical documentaries and boxing, and rates it TV-MA.

The Netflix fight that came first

The series was announced weeks after Tyson’s bout with Jake Paul, and Netflix already has a companion piece on that night. Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson is a three-episode, roughly two-hour series that follows both fighters through their training camps and personal lives in the run-up to the match. Netflix says the event drew an estimated average audience of more than 108 million live viewers worldwide, rising to 125 million with a day of catch-up viewing, and peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, 38 million of them in the US. Watching Countdown after Human closes the loop on the most recent chapter of the story.

More from Floyd Russ

Two of the director’s earlier projects sit on the same service. American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing (2023) is a three-episode limited series that uses archive footage, reconstructions and interviews to retrace the attack and the hunt for the two brothers behind it. Untold: Malice at the Palace (2021) revisits the 2004 brawl between players and fans at an NBA game in Michigan, through the people who were there.

For more first-person portraits on Netflix this autumn, see Norm Macdonald, in His Own Words and The Matthew Perry Docuseries Is Almost Here. The Free Leonard Peltier documentary that opened the same week is covered in Sundance’s Peltier Doc Reaches Netflix.

Where to watch

TYSON (four parts): Netflix · CA US UK · Streaming now, since Tue 13 Oct.
Free Leonard Peltier: Netflix · Mon 12 Oct.
Solar Opposites season 6 and The Trap: Netflix · Tue 13 Oct.
Love Is Blind season 11: Netflix · Wed 14 Oct.
Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson (three episodes, 2024): Netflix · CA US UK · Streaming now
American Manhunt: The Boston Marathon Bombing (three episodes, Floyd Russ): Netflix · CA US UK · Streaming now