NEW YORK -- Former world heavyweight champ Mike Tyson will take flight on Animal Planet with a new sport -- pigeon racing.

The network this week announced a new reality show that will pit Tyson, a novice pigeon racer, against serious competitors.

The show is currently titled "Taking on Tyson" and promises to bring audiences inside this "intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating world."

Tyson has raised pigeons all his life but will take to the rooftops as a racing rookie. The network says he'll be assisted by a colorful team of pigeon experts as he rears, trains and races them.

The show is scheduled to be taped this spring in New York City and air early next year.