When Mike Tyson said he 'died' after smoking psychedelic toad venom
Late last year, Mike Tyson set the combat sports and pop culture realms abuzz with his comments regarding psychedelic toad venom. In November 2021, Tyson made an appearance at Wonderland – a Miami conference dedicated to microdosing, medicine, and psychedelics.
It was at this conference that ‘Iron’ opened up about having a near-death experience the first time he smoked psychedelic toad venom produced by the Sonoran Desert toad.
The toad spends about seven months a year living underground. However, when it’s active, its venom can be smoked to induce a short psychoactive trip. Apparently, Tyson used the venom for the first time in 2017; when he was overweight and dealing with drug and alcohol-related issues.
Speaking to The New York Post, Mike Tyson explained that he had experienced psychoactive trips induced by the venom 53 times. ‘Iron’ noted that he resultantly lost 100 pounds in weight, reconnected with his wife and children, and started boxing again. As an advocate for psychedelics, who has an entire nursery of the toads at his ranch in Southern California, Tyson stated:
“I ‘died’ during my first trip.” Tyson continued, “In my trips, I’ve seen that death is beautiful. Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep. The toad has taught me that I’m not going to be here forever. There’s an expiration date.”
Recalling the trip that nearly killed him, Tyson added:
“I did it as a dare. I was doing heavy drugs like cocaine, so why not? It’s another dimension.”
Mike Tyson on potentially fighting again
In a recent appearance on the Full Send Podcast, Tyson insinuated that he’s currently not interested in fighting again. His last fight was an exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. in November 2020.
The former undisputed heavyweight champion explained that he fought Jones for fun. Tyson added, however, that certain people are solely focused on the financial rewards of a fight that involves him. Tyson said:
"Guys want to fight me for $100 million bucks, I don't think I'll ever do stuff like that anymore. I wanted to do it the first time just for fun, just to have fun and then some people took it to another level and made it financial and then the fun went out of it."
Mike Tyson was rumored to be fighting Jake Paul next. Nevertheless, he shot down this rumor by tweeting that he met Paul and they didn’t discuss any potential fight against each other. Furthermore, many believe that even if Tyson does box again, it’ll be in an exhibition bout and not a professional boxing match.
This is new to me. I saw Jake in St. Barths and he never mentioned it. twitter.com/SunBoxing/stat…