Mike Tyson forced to deny claims that he underwent 16-hour sex change to become ‘Michelle’ after African media was fooled by a spoof report
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | December 16, 2012 0:53
‘I have no intention of becoming a woman’ Mike Tyson is reported as saying after a false report of him having a sex-change operation went viral.
The former undisputed heavyweight world champion issued a statement denying the false claims on the African news site, SpyGhana, which originally reported the false claim.
I am still a man and I have always been fully in touch with my masculinity and have no intention of becoming a woman’ Tyson, 46, has since been quoted as saying.
‘The claims are not only untrue but unbelievably stupid. I was at the Pacquiao-Marquez fight on Saturday and any reasonable person could tell I was looking like a man.’
The NewsBiscuit story, ‘Mike Tyson sex change operation a “complete success”, say surgeons,’ was published in late November and spread like wildfire after The Standard in Zimbabwe and SpyGhana both reported the news as fact.
The original spoof story claims Tyson wanted to replace his long-standing nickname of ‘Iron Mike’ with ‘Iron Maiden’ and changed his name from Mike to Michelle following a 16-hour sex-change operation.
The spreading of false media reports has become fairly common as of late, as the demand for immediate breaking news has grown among media outlets.
NewsBiscuit, the British ‘News Satire, Satire, Parody News’ site which published the Tyson spoof story, states on its FAQ page that ‘All we’re doing is doing some fake news with a slightly British prospective.’
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