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Boxing legend Mike Tyson doesn’t just like cannabis. He needs it.
“Some of us can’t live, can’t work without it,” Tyson told Pakinomist Digital, adding that he’s “100%” one of these people. He thinks he would probably be in prison and “less successful as a human” if he never discovered the facility.
Cannabis played strongly in Tyson’s match with YouTuber Jake Paul. Tyson says he was strongly under the influence of marijuana when he accepted the fight.
When asked if he would have agreed to fight against Paul if he was sober, Tyson said “I don’t really believe it, no.”
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Mike Tyson, boxer and entrepreneur, smokes a joint at Royal Queen Seeds stands by Mary Jane Cannabis Trade Fair 20 June 2025 in Berlin. (Sebastian Gollnow/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
The day of the match Tyson said he used marijuana “not long before the” match started.
“Yes, I can’t stop. … I don’t think I was tall. I was very relaxed and cool,” Tyson said of his state of mind before the fight. “It brought me to an advantage.”
After losing to Paul in eight rounds, Tyson immediately used marijuana again.
“I said I needed a common right away. As soon as it ended, I needed a common. Let’s get out of here,” Tyson said. “It was as if I was dreaming. It was like a dream. It was beautiful. It felt like I won the match.”
When asked if he wants to fight again, Tyson said, “It depends on whether cannabis will ever become legal or not and re -planned.”
By “re -planned” Tyson means that he wants to see the plant officially reclassified by the government from a category defined by great potential for abuse without accepted medical use to a category of moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.
Ex-nfler says he would be in trouble ‘if cannabis was still wide illegal, happy today’s players can use it
It is one of the three points that Tyson agreed in a recent letter to President Donald Trump’s White House, which he wrote with other superstar athletes and underholders, such as Kevin Durant and Allen Iverson.
Tyson, Durant and the others press for reform and put their faith in Trump. Joe Biden, and former Barack Obama, did not achieve greater federal reform for cannabis or significant clemency for those imprisoned for non-violent cannabis crimes in their respective conditions.
“It was a shutdown, but you have to respect that they were in power. You have to respect it,” Tyson said. “We have another president now, so we’re talking to him. So it seems to be very different to talk to President Trump than with the other guy. And as I said before, it’s their agenda. This is our agenda right here.”
Tyson added that he believes that the re -planning of marijuana is the highest priority in his federal reform target. On top of that, he and his followers will see Mass Clemency for non -violent marijuana -law offenders.
Tyson said that watching people go to jail for these offenses was an unfortunate memory of his childhood.
“I always knew that. I always knew I am friends with these people, people come from my community,” Tyson said. He remembered a member of his community, he watched to go to prison when he was a child and who was not released until Tyson became an established fighter.
A recent study By researchers at UC, San Francisco determined that eating edible cannabis, such as rubber, has the same cardiovascular risk as smoking marijuana for long -term users. The risk comes from reduced blood vessel function according to the study published in Jama Cardiology May 28.
Tyson first admitted to using the drug before he was 10 years old. Now he believes that the minimum age of a cannabis user should be 21.
For Tyson, the plant became a key component in achieving success as a boxer. He claims it made him a better athlete as a fighter, and he often used it after matches to recover.
Apart from the Paul match, Tyson says there was only another time when he used cannabis just before a match. It was against Andrew Golota in 2000, a match Tyson won with technical knockout.
“Very relaxing, very calm, very – I don’t know – just very free,” Tyson said of the experience of winning that battle under the influence of cannabis.
Tyson added that the plant helped him avoid other drugs, such as cocaine and alcohol.
“It makes you health conscious,” Tyson said.
However, when the plant was illegal and criminalized throughout parts of the United States, Tyson said he would get sick from using cannabis he bought from the street laced with chemicals. He says it happened several times.
“It wasn’t good. It felt like my throat would explode,” Tyson said.
Prevention of the spread of marijuana laced with chemicals is one of the driving factors behind Tyson’s push for federal reform. He believes the industry should be legitimized to grab the black market marihuana trade.
The last point he did in his letter to Trump was to stop banking practices limiting the financial management of cannabis companies.
“They’ll do it anyway, legally or illegally, so let’s do it for sure. Get all the bad actors out of the picture,” Tyson said.
Tyson does not go out on his mission alone. He, Durant and Iverson were gathered 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 prominent cannabis lawyer Ricky Williams.
They were also together with music producer Weldon Angelos, sentenced to 55 years in prison in November 2004 for Marijuana prosecutor. Angelos was released in 2016 and pardoned by Trump in December 2020. The letter also criticized former President Joe Biden for a lack of action to tackle marijuana-related imprisonment.
Mike Tyson, Right, fights Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, November 15, 2024. (Kevin Jairaj/Imag- Pictures)
“We want [Trump] To follow his campaign trucks, ”said Angelos.
“I think many athletes use cannabis for medical purposes. That’s why so many athletes are on the letter we organized because cannabis has helped him. Just look at Mike Tyson … Cannabis has helped him tremendously. So cannabis is a medicine people should have access to it.”
