Mike Tyson’s visa has been canceled after a charitable organization sponsoring a trip to New Zealand for the former heavyweight champion withdrew its support for his visit.
The move to cancel Tyson’s visa came from a New Zealand lawmaker, who rescinded a visa Tyson had been issued to fulfill a speaking engagement in September, The Associated Press reported.
Kate Wilkinson, the nation’s associate immigration minister, said that she overruled the decision an immigration officer had made a day earlier when the charitable group changed its mind about Tyson’s visit, ordering Tyson’s visa canceled.
The charity Life Education Trust’s originally supported the trip, which Wilkinson said helped tipped the scales in Tyson’s favor to get a visa. The former heavyweight champion was convicted of rape in 1992 and spent three years in prison, but despite the checkered past the support of the charity made the decision to give Tyson a visa “a finely balanced call,” Wilkinson said.
Aside from his scheduled talk to the Life Education Trust, the boxer-turned-actor had another ulterior motive to his trip to New Zealand. He was scheduled to perform his one-man show called Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth .
Tyson has actually become somewhat of a theater buff, telling the Telegraph that his next career move would be on the stage rather than in the ring. He said he is ready to cast aside his tough public persona and instead chase another passion — singing and dancing .
“I want to dance and sing. I want to do some dancing and singing musicals,” Tyson said during a visit to Hong Kong.
With Tyson’s visa canceled, the people of New Zealand will have to wait at least a little longer to meet Mike Tyson, thespian.
