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Boxing legend Mike Tyson is not an excuse Like cannabis. He needs it.
“Some of us can’t live, It cannot function Without that, Tyson told Fox News Digital, adding that he is “100%” of those people. He believes that if he had never discovered a plant, he would be in prison and “not very successful as a human being.”
Cannabis was held heavily in Tyson’s battle with YouTuber Jake Paul. Tyson says he was under the influence of marijuana when he agreed to the match.
When asked if he agreed to fight Paul if he was calm, Tyson said, “I really don’t believe it, no.”
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Boxer and entrepreneur Mike Tyson smokes joints on June 20, 2025 at the Royal Queen Seed Stand at the Mary Jane Cannabis Trade Fair in Berlin. (Photo Alliance by Sebastian Gornow/Getty Images)
On match day, Tyson said he used marijuana “sometimes before the fight began.”
“Yeah, I won’t stop… I don’t think I was expensive. I was very relaxed and cool,” Tyson said of his state of mind before the fight. “It gave me an advantage.”
After losing to Paul in the eighth round, Tyson quickly reused marijuana.
“I said I needed a joint right away. I needed a joint as soon as it was finished. Let’s get out of here,” Tyson said. “It was like I was dreaming. It was like a dream. It was beautiful. It felt like I had won the battle.”
When asked if he would fight again, Tyson said, “It depends on whether marijuana is legal or not and is rescheduled.”
“Rescheduling” means that Tyson wants to be officially reclassified by the government from categories where plants are defined by high likelihood of abuse, to categories where they are likely to be moderate to low physical and psychological dependence.
This is one of the three points that Tyson proposed. Recent Letters In the White House of President Donald Trump, who wrote in collaboration with other superstar athletes and entertainers, including Kevin Durant and Allen Iverson.
Tyson, Durant and others are pushing for reform and have faith in Trump. Joe Biden, and previously Barack Obama, did not achieve major federal reforms for cannabis or serious generosity for those who were jailed for non-violent cannabis crimes during their respective tenures.
“It was a disappointment, but you have to respect that they were in power. You have to respect that,” Tyson said. “We have another president now, so we’re talking to him. So it seems like it’s a lot different to talking to President Trump and the other guys. And, like I said before, it’s their agenda. This is our agenda.”
Tyson added that he considers marijuana rescheduling to be a top priority in his federal reform goals. In addition to that, he and his supporters want to see massive tolerance for non-violent marijuana offenders.
Tyson said it was unfortunate memories of his childhood to see people go to prison for these crimes.
“I’ve always known that. I’ve always known that I’m friends with those people. People come from my community,” Tyson said. He recalls seeing him go to prison as a child and not being released until Tyson became an established fighter.
Recent research Researchers at UC San Francisco have determined that eating edible cannabis, such as gummies, has the same cardiovascular risk as long-term users’ smoking marijuana. This risk is attributed to a decrease in vascular function, according to a study published May 28th in Jama Cardiology.
Tyson admitted to first use the medication before he turned 10. Now he believes that the minimum age for cannabis users should be 21.
For Tyson, the factory has become an important element of success as a boxer. He claimed it made him a better athlete as a fighter, and he often used it to recover it after the fight.
Apart from the Battle of Paul, Tyson says that only one other person used cannabis just before the battle. It was the Tyson battle that a technical knockout won against Andrew Golota in 2000.
“Very relaxed, very calm, very – I don’t know – very free,” Tyson said of his experience winning that fight under the influence of cannabis.
Tyson added that the plant helps avoid other drugs such as cocaine and alcohol.
“It makes you healthy,” Tyson said.
But when the plant was illegally criminalised in parts of the United States, Tyson said he would use cannabis bought from the streets mixed with chemicals to get sick. He says it happened many times.
“It wasn’t good. I felt like my throat was exploding,” Tyson said.
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Preventing the spread of chemically mixed marijuana is one of the drivers behind Tyson’s push for federal reform. He believes the industry must be justified to take away the black market marijuana trade.
The final point he made in his letter to Trump was to put an end to banking operations that restricted financial management of the cannabis business.
“They are trying to do something legal or illegal anyway, so let’s keep them safe. They’re going to kick all the bad actors out of the picture,” Tyson said.
Tyson doesn’t just embark on his mission. He, Durant and Iverson were joined in the letter by former boxer Roy Jones Jr., former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant, former NFL star Antonio Brown and former NFL player and well-known cannabis advocate Ricky Williams.
He was also joined by music producer Weldon Angelos, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison on marijuana charges in November 2004. Angelos was released in 2016 and forgiven by Trump in December 2020. The letter also criticized former President Joe Biden for his lack of action to address marijuana-related incarceration.
Mike Tyson, Right, fights Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, November 15, 2024. (Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images)
“We want [Trump] To follow the promises of his campaign,” Angelos said.
“I think a lot of athletes use cannabis for medicinal purposes. So, because cannabis helped him, there are a lot of athletes in the letters we organized. Look at Mike Tyson… Cannabis is a drug.
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