In 1995, Zhang was called up to the Shenqiu County canoe sprinting team by coach Li Guofeng. When Zhang injured his leg during a tryout for the provincial canoe sprinting team, he was referred to the provincial boxing coach Gu Ganqing. In 1998, Gu signed him to the Combat and Weightlifting Center in the Henan Provincial Department of Sports, headed by center chief Li Yan in Shangjie. From 1998 until he was released from his sporting obligations, he was coached by Gu. This was the first time Zhang had lived away from his family.

Despite this loss, Tyson continued to storm through the heavyweight division. One year after D’Amato’s death, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever when he gained the World Boxing Council (WBC) championship belt after a two-round knockout of Trevor Berbick. Co-Manager Jimmy Jacobs told Pat Putnam of Sports Illustrated that everything was going to plan: “Cus predicted that Mike would fight for the title before the end of 1986…Cus said the only way to prepare Mike for this was to give him a speed education by a multiple of four. So there has been no R and R for Mike. There couldn’t be. And he has held up beautifully.” The next year he united the heavyweight championship, defeating James “Bonecrusher” Smith for the World Boxing Association (WBA) belt in March and Tony Tucker for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) belt in August. Tyson was on top of the boxing world as the most ferocious boxer in the sport’s most glamorous 4 division boxing champions. But he soon learned that success often comes at a price.

When Tyson got the face tattoo, he agreed in writing that all drawings, artwork, and photographs of it belonged to Whitmill’s Paradox-Studio of Dermagraphics, an uncommon step in the tattoo industry. In The Hangover’s 2011 sequel, The Hangover Part II, the character Stu Price (played by Ed Helms) gets a face tattoo almost identical to Tyson’s. After seeing a poster depicting the tattooed Stu, Whitmill registered a copyright for the tattoo and then on April 28, 2011 filed Whitmill v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., seeking to enjoin The Hangover’s distributor, Warner Bros., from using the tattoo in the movie or its promotional materials. Describing the face tattoo as “one of the most distinctive tattoos in the nation”, Whitmill did not challenge “Tyson’s right to use or control his identity” but challenged Warner Bros.’ use of the design itself, without having asked his permission or given him credit.

Tyson inked the tattoo in the last days of his career. He fought only thrice as a professional with the tattoo on his face. After knocking out Ettiene in 2003, Tyson lost back to back against Danny Williams and Kevin McBride and hung his gloves. It was a time of sheer financial crisis for ‘Iron’ as he was declared bankrupt in 2003.

One fateful day in the winter of 2003, Mike Tyson decided to get an enormous tribal tattoo right on his face. You might think that’s the sort of thing he’d look back on now at the age of 50 and regret, but no.

But Tyson’s game seemed to be on the decline. Once known for his complicated offensive and defensive moves, the boxer seemed to continually rely on his one-punch knockout move to finish his bouts. He blamed his trainer for his struggles in the ring and fired Rooney in mid-1988.

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On 15 January 2024, it was announced that Zhang would be facing former WBO champion Joseph Parker, with the fight scheduled to occur on 8 March 2024 as the co-main event of the Knockout Chaos event, at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena. Zhang was defeated by Parker in a majority points decision, in which two judges had it for Parker, 114–112 and 115–111, and one judge had it even at 113–113.

Zhang speaks the Henan variety of Central Plains Mandarin in most of his post-match interviews and on his social media Douyin and Weibo, which has become a signature characteristic of his, as those born before the mid-1980s are the last generation to speak Central Plains Mandarin fluently. It and other languages of China have been gradually replaced by Beijing Mandarin in the younger generation in Henan and provinces all over China.

Despite its popularity, the Mike Tyson tattoo has also been the subject of legal disputes and controversies. One prominent example is the lawsuit filed by tattoo artist Victor Whitmill over the use of the design in the movie The Hangover Part II.

Despite Fuller’s reputation as “one of the most skillful and respected defense attorneys not only in Washington, but in the country the defense team embarked on a game plan filled with ill-fated decisions and questionable strategies. While the famous Fuller seemed to give Tyson an imposing advantage, his background made him an illogical choice. Though he’d represented such notables as John Hinckley Jr. and junk-bond king Michael Milken, his reputation came mostly from federal court white-collar cases such as tax fraud and bribery. He simply wasn’t familiar with the rough-and-tumble county criminal courts, and lacked recent experience in sex-crime cases. He couldn’t locate exhibits, fumbled his delivery, exhibited a lack of knowledge of Indiana law, and generally handled Tyson’s defense more like a first-year law student than a seasoned pro.” Fuller had also successfully defended Tyson’s manager, Don King, “against federal tax-evasion charges” in 1985, which may have been one of the reasons King chose him to represent Tyson. Tyson himself would later describe Fuller as “a horrible lawyer”. According to Shaw, Fuller “never challenged obvious problems in Washington’s story. Exactly why did she remove her panty shield? How did Tyson perform oral sex on her and still keep her pinned to the bed? If Tyson is one of the strongest men in the world, where were the bruises on the 108-pound woman?”