Boxer Mike Tyson admitted in an interview with Yahoo on October 27 that he would punch fans in the face whenever they asked for his autograph during the height of his career.
“My life was just miserable. I was out of control. I was fighting with everybody. If someone asked me for an autograph, I’d punch them in the face. I was just a mess, and then after I retired, I started smoking,” Tyson said.
According to BET, Tyson had various tiffs with the law during his intense career, including being charged with battery, sexual battery, misdemeanor assault, and assault with a deadly weapon. The boxer even spent three years in prison after being found guilty on one count of rape and two counts of deviate sexual conduct in 1992.
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Despite this, the former heavyweight boxing champ credits his change in behavior to smoking marijuana.
“What a mistake that was — I should have smoked my whole career. I should have smoked when I was fighting because it put me in this different state of mind. I’m very relaxed, and the more relaxed you are, the better fighter you are, at least in my case.”
However, throughout his career, Tyson faced the consequences of cannabis consumption. His 2000 win against Andrew Golota changed to no-contest after he tested positive for marijuana.
“I broke his cheekbone, his eye socket, his rib — I should have been doing this from the beginning. And I said, ‘Wow.’ I got fined for that, of course, but it was worth every bit of it,” Tyson said, giving psychedelics a shoutout for his comeback. “I think of it as an enhancer. It makes me better, even in the ring. The punches don’t hurt as much. It has a lot to do with my come back, the psychedelics.”
Tyson is launching Tyson 2.0, a cannabis line in partnership with Columbia Care.
