Mike Tyson spoke on CNBC explaining his support for Palestine and encouraging a boycott of Israel.
There is no evidence Mike Tyson ever made the speech quoted in the social media post and Mr Tyson’s publicist told Full Fact this is “absolutely false”.
A series of posts on the social media platform Threads claims that boxer Mike Tyson shared his support for Palestine and a boycott of Israel while talking to US news channel CNBC.
The same claim has also been shared on X (formerly Twitter), where it has been reposted more than 800 times.
But this isn’t true. Mr Tyson’s publicist Joann Mignano told Full Fact the claim made in the posts is “absolutely false”.
When searching online, we also could find no evidence that Mr Tyson ever said this. When we tried to search for the quotes he supposedly gave, we found very few examples of the claim online and no results from credible sources—including CNBC.
The text of the post, which is shared over a four-part thread, claims: “Legendary boxer Mike Tyson explained his support for Palestine and the importance of boycotting on CNBC with a magnificent example.”
The posts go on to quote an alleged speech given by Mr Tyson, in which he supposedly said: “Don't pay attention to those who try to convince us that it doesn't work, don't believe the devil who wants to show how powerful Israel is an impossible opponent to destroy [sic].
“Every punch we throw serves the last punch that we will knock it down, we will resist tirelessly and continue the boycott.”
We could not find any examples of Mr Tyson speaking directly about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, though it was reported last November that he had attended an event held by the Friends of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in Miami.
However, Mr Tyson later distanced himself from the event, claiming in a post on his Instagram story: “Invited for a casual evening out by a friend, I was unaware of the arranged fundraiser and no donations were made by me or on my behalf.”
He added: “As a Muslim and human, I support peace. My prayers have been and continue to be with my brothers and sisters.”
In the past Mr Tyson has appeared to wear a wristband expressing support for Palestine, and has also expressed his support for Jewish people and condemned antisemitism.
We have contacted Mr Tyson’s publicist and CNBC for comment, and will update this article if we receive a response.
False claims about the beliefs and politics of celebrities are very common on social media and we have fact checked them many times. One recent example included false claims that Taylor Swift had cancelled tour dates due to low sales after endorsing Kamala Harris for US president.
Update 1 October 2024
This article has been updated to include a quote from Mr Tyson’s publicist.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because we could find no evidence Mr Tyson ever said this and his publicist said it is “absolutely false”.
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