Not only was Mike Tyson smoking marijuana through his entire camp, he smoked a joint right before he fought Roy Jones Jr.
54 year old Mike Tyson stepped back into the ring for the first time in 15 years on Saturday night, earning himself a draw in the eyes of celebrity judges and a win in the eyes of the fans against the 51 year old Roy Jones Jr. And while Tyson was clear that he had no intention of taking this comeback past exhibition bouts to raise money for various community charities, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be a lot more of them.
“I’m capable of helping a lot of people less fortunate than myself,” Tyson said during his post-fight press conference. “That’s what I’m capable of doing. All over the world. In a perfect world I’m a missionary. In a perfect world.”
“What I’m doing in the ring is a gift not only for myself,” he continued. “Before it was all about me with the hot chicks and the nice car and the planes and the boats. It doesn’t do it for me any more. So I went another way. I’ll help somebody else, I guess. Because I don’t get into that no more. I like my pigeons and fancy clothes. Other than that I don’t want anything I don’t like. Isn’t that a trip? My pigeons and my clothes. Of course my children and my wife. But my pigeons and my clothes and my joint.”
When asked if Tyson had already smoked a joint before coming down for the press conference, “Iron Mike” admitted just how chronic he’d been through the fight, right up to immediately before the fight.
“Yeah absolutely, coming down here,” Tyson said. “Well listen, I can’t stop smoking.”
“Did you have one right before the fight?” a member of the press asked.
“Absolutely, yeah,” Tyson replied. “It’s just who I am, it has no effects on me from a negative standpoint. It’s just what I do and who I am and how I’m going to die. There’s no explanation, there’s no beginning and no end. It just numbs me, it doesn’t numb the pain.”
We imagine the California commission isn’t going to be too happy with Tyson over this. While marijuana rules have been relaxed a lot over the past several years when it comes to combat sports, there’s definitely still a hard rule about not being stoned during your fight. And with VADA conducting fight night testing of both Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., there’s a good chance Mike’s THC levels may be off the charts enough to land him in trouble.
We doubt massive fines or suspensions are in the cards, but it may make it harder for him to get another license from the commission. Unless, of course, Tyson figured out some way to get around the drug tests — say, by using a fake penis filled with someone else’s urine. Now that would be some classic “Iron Mike.”