Saying Mike Tyson knows a thing or two about marijuana is like saying he knows a thing or two about boxing.
After fighting Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in 2020, Tyson said he used marijuana on the day of the fight. He openly smoked marijuana on all 275 or so episodes of his own podcast, Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson. Not only does he consume cannabis, he also sells his own brand, Tyson 2.0.
So Tyson, 57, is apparently taking on something that may be more difficult than fighting a man 30 years younger than himself.
Tyson's publicist Joanne Mignano said the former heavyweight champion, who said he uses marijuana daily, will compete against Jake Paul, 27, scheduled for July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. He said he gave up drugs while training for a boxing match.
“He just stopped as a means of following all the rules,” Mignano told USA TODAY Sports in an email. “But he remains a strong advocate of the medicinal benefits of cannabis for his own well-being and those of others like him.''
Marijuana is on the list of banned substances by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which regulates martial arts in Texas. Failing a drug test will result in an automatic 90-day suspension and fine, and if the winner of a fight tests positive, the result will be changed to a “no decision.”
More drugs and more rules
Tyson also said he had used mushrooms, a hallucinogenic drug, before the fight, which would be prohibited in Texas.
“The use of pharmacological substances that are not approved for human therapeutic use is prohibited,” said Terra Mange, public relations manager at TDLR.
Mignano indicated that Tyson will fully comply with the rules.
Manzi suggested that a failed drug test would not jeopardize the scheduled fight between Tyson and Paul. Manzi said that's because drug tests are random, conducted only on game day, and results won't be known for at least a week.
However, fighters have been disqualified for refusing to submit to a pre-fight drug test or failing to follow the drug testing process, something Tyson did at least once during his professional career.
In Texas, drug testing is not conducted prior to an exhibition. It is still unclear whether the fight between Tyson and Paul will be an exhibition or a professional fight.
Mike Tyson sanctioned for marijuana
In 2001, Tyson tested positive for marijuana after a fight with Andrew Golota and was suspended for 90 days and fined. (He had refused to take a pre-fight drug test.) Later that year, Tyson said he should have quit smoking all throughout his professional boxing career, which ended in 2005.
Since his retirement, especially in recent years, Tyson has openly smoked marijuana 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. In one episode, Tyson said that to pass his drug test, he used a fake penis, “The Wizinator,” and the urine of his wife and then-infant.
On March 20, nearly two weeks after the Tyson vs. Paul fight was announced, Tyson posted a video on social media saying he had recorded the final episode of his podcast. His hot boxing footage ended at the same time as he released a video of him training for the fight.
“I don't think I'm going to smoke in this fight, and I think I'm going to be really frustrated and mean,” Tyson said on Fox News on April 2, in his first public comments on the matter. “…Normally that would be the case. But for this match, I think I'll fight raw and naked.”
Texas is an exception to drug testing.
Mike Mazzulli, president of the Boxing Commission and Martial Arts Association, said most states have stopped testing athletes for marijuana since widespread legalization.
One exception is Texas, which remains one of only 19 states where people are jailed for possessing small amounts of marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
Last year, lightweight boxing prospect Keyshawn Davis was forced to sit out 90 days in Texas after testing positive for marijuana, ESPN reported, citing the fighter's promoter, Top Rank Boxing. He was suspended.
The standard for a positive marijuana test in martial arts in Texas is 50 ng/ml. Margaret Goodman, a neurologist and founder of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), said THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, can be detectable for more than a few days after a single use.
“Thus, the presence of THC in a laboratory test may indicate prior use, but is not related to current use,” Goodman said in an email.
Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), said state licensing rules typically apply because boxing does not have a uniform regulatory commission.
For example, there was no talk of Tyson giving up marijuana while training for his 2020 exhibition fight in Los Angeles. Andy Foster, executive director of the California Athletic Commission, said he passed a drug test on game day, but not for marijuana.
Marijuana is legal in California for medical and recreational purposes, and Foster said the committee does not test players for marijuana before every game. But Foster said Tyson had been tested for “hard drugs” and complied with all rules.
In the USADA program for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which includes boxers, testing for marijuana is only done at competitions, and USADA's policy is the norm for the World Anti-Doping Agency. USADA uses a threshold of 150 ng/ml. Tygart said a positive test could result in a suspension of up to two years, and if a player participates in a counseling program, he could be suspended for as little as one month.
Tygart said that in USADA's professional sports programs, a positive test does not automatically result in a violation unless it affects performance or jeopardizes health and safety.
Will there be additional testing for Tyson vs. Paul?
Goodman, founder of VADA, said VADA, which provides independent drug testing for boxing and mixed martial arts, was used in Paul's boxing match against Nate Diaz in Texas in August.
Bryce Holden, the promoter of the Tyson vs. Paul fight, was also the promoter of the Diaz vs. Paul fight. He declined to discuss the contract with VADA or whether drug testing would be conducted beyond the scope of TDLR. But Holden noted that Tyson's marijuana use is well-documented and that marijuana is on Texas' list of banned substances.
“So, we're in touch with the camps,” he said, “and obviously, at the end of the day, we're also in touch with the commission[that oversees boxing]on a weekly, daily basis. . So I'm not worried about that.”
TDLR only conducts competition-day testing and marijuana testing, while VADA conducts both out-of-competition and on-the-day testing, but not marijuana testing. Goodman said VADA stopped testing for marijuana shortly after its founding in 2011.
Goodman echoed a widespread sentiment in the sports world, saying marijuana is “not a substance that enhances someone's performance.”
