Mike Tyson was forced to cancel upcoming appearances in the United Kingdom after being declined clearance into Great Britain due to his criminal history.
The former heavyweight champion was scheduled to arrive in London before being rerouted to Paris after it was discovered his previous convictions bar him from entering the country, according to a report from the Associated Press, via ESPN.
Under Britain's immigration rules, anyone sentenced to more than four years in prison is barred from entering the country.
Tyson served three years of a six-year sentence in the 1990s for raping a teenage beauty-pageant contestant. He also has been convicted of assault and cocaine possession.
Tyson is currently traveling the globe to promote his autobiography, Undisputed Truth, which details his rise to fame and everything else that has happened along the way. HarperCollins U.K., which published the book in Britain, said recent law changes altered the former boxer's status, according to the report.
No immediate update was provided about whether Tyson would be eligible to reschedule the appearances at a later date if given clearance.
Paul Cockerton of the Daily Mirror passed along a statement from the UK's Home Office, which wouldn't comment on Tyson specifically but stated it held the right to refuse entry to anybody convicted of serious offenses.
We reserve the right to refuse entry to the UK to anyone who is convicted of serious criminal offences.
In December 2012 we toughened up the rules on entering the UK, replacing the previous discretionary approach with a clearer, stronger framework including mandatory refusals based on the length of, and time since, sentence.
The Mirror report also makes note that Tyson was scheduled to make a return trip to the United Kingdom in March of next year for his one-man show. There are eight dates for that second tour, and its status is unknown now that Tyson has been denied entry to promote his book.
Tyson won the first 37 fights of his career and won multiple heavyweight titles in the process, the first coming when he was just 20 years old. His last bout came in 2005, a lackluster loss to Kevin McBride with Tyson showing very little of the talent that made him a superstar.
He has remained in the spotlight since leaving the ring, but that celebrity status wasn't enough to gain him entry into the United Kingdom.
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