Culture & LifestyleArticle16 Apr, 2024

Mike Tyson is giving up marijuana while training for Jake Paul bout. Here's why.

Marijuana is on the list of banned substances used by the Texas department that regulates combat sports, so Mike Tyson is following rules before Jake Paul fight in Texas.

To say Mike Tyson is familiar with marijuana is to say he knows a thing or two about boxing.

After fighting Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in 2020, Tyson said he used marijuana the day of the fight. He openly smoked marijuana on all 275-or-so episodes of his podcast, "Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson.'' He not only consumes cannabis but also sells it – his own brand, in fact, Tyson 2.0.

So at 57, Tyson apparently is trying something he might find harder than fighting a man 30 years younger than he is.

The former heavyweight champion, who has said he uses marijuana daily, has given up the drug while training for his boxing match against Jake Paul, 27, set for July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, according to Joann Mignano, Tyson’s publicist.

“He only stopped as a means of following all of the rules,’’ Mignano told USA TODAY Sports by email, “but he is still a strong advocate for the medicinal benefits of cannabis for his personal well-being and others like him.’’

Marijuana is on the list of banned substances used by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which regulates combat sports in Texas. A failed drug test results in an automatic 90-day suspension, a fine and if the winner of the fight tests positive, the outcome is changed to "No Decision.''

More drugs and more rules

Tyson also has said he's used "mushrooms,'' a psychedelic drug, before fights. This would be a no-no in Texas.

"Use of any pharmacological substance that is not approved for human therapeutic use is prohibited,'' said Tela Mange, communications manager for the TDLR.

Mignano indicated Tyson will be in full compliance with the rules.

A failed drug test would not jeopardize the proposed fight between Tyson and Paul, Mange indicated. That’s because the drug tests, which are random, are conducted only on the day of a fight and results are unavailable for at least a week, according to Mange.

But fighters have been disqualified for refusing to submit a prefight drug test – something Tyson did at least once during his pro career – or fail to follow the drug-testing process.

In Texas, drug testing does not take place before an exhibition. It’s still unclear if the fight between Tyson and Paul will be an exhibition or pro fight.

Mike Tyson has been sanctioned for marijuana

In 2001, Tyson was suspended for 90 days and fined after testing positive for marijuana following his fight against Andrew Golota. (He'd refused to take a prefight drug test.) Later that year, Tyson said he should have smoked his entire pro boxing career, which ended in 2005.

Since retirement, especially in recent years, Tyson has smoked marijuana openly while becoming a cannabis entrepreneur. The name of his podcast ("Hotboxin'" launched in 2019) refers to smoking marijuana in an enclosed area, and he regularly fired up joints in a smoke-filled studio. On one episode, Tyson said he'd used a "Whizzinator,'' a fake penis, and urine from his wife and then-infant to pass drug tests.

On March 20, almost two weeks after the Tyson-Paul fight was announced, Tyson posted a video on social media saying he had recorded the final episodes of his podcast. The footage of him hotboxing ended at the same time he released a video of training for the fight.

“I don’t think I’ll be smoking for this fight, and I think I’m going to be really, really irritable and nasty,’’ Tyson said April 2 on Fox News in his first public comments about the issue. “... Normally I do. But for this particular fight, I think I’m going to go raw and naked.’’

Texas is an exception with drug testing

Most states have stopped testing fighters for marijuana since its legalization has spread, said Mike Mazzuli, president of the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports.

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