Mike Tyson credited a psychedelic drug concoction known as toad venom for his much anticipated return to the ring.
“I took the medicine and the medicine told me to get into shape,” Tyson said Friday of the drug 5-MeO-DMT during his weigh-in USA Today reported. “It really blew my mind. It told me to come back and start getting in shape.”
The former heavyweight boxing champion — now 54 — will fight his first match in 15 years against Roy Jones Jr. in an eight-round exhibition show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
In a nod to coronavirus restrictions, the fight will not allow spectators but will be broadcast on pay-per-view for $49.99.
Jones, 51, said during his own weigh in he had no intention of underestimating his opponent, the paper reported.
“He’s been out 15 years and he knows what it’s like to miss boxing,” said Jones, “He realizes what he had and he’s seeking to get that back now. … Now he has a desire to want to come out and be who he once was and do what he could once do.”
Tyson became the world’s youngest heavyweight boxing champion in 1986 at the age of 20. Since then he has led a colorful career in and out of the ring and is most famous for a 1997 match with Evander Holyfield in which the pugilist was disqualified for biting off a chunk of Holyfield’s ear.
