Mike Tyson has done plenty of absurd and dangerous things throughout his 59 years on this planet, a lot of them during his legendary boxing tenure.
But on the latest episode of “The Katie Miller Podcast,” released Tuesday, the former heavyweight champion made a new confession that raised eyebrows, even with all that we know about Tyson’s life.
Dealing with pain is a common occurrence for boxers, and Tyson admitted to Miller that he sometimes went to extreme lengths to treat his during his career, in some cases putting his life on the line.
During the late 1990s, Tyson told Miller he used fentanyl “quite a few times” to combat pain.
“It was a painkiller, and I used to use it to patch up my toe,” Tyson said, via the New York Post. “It was like heroin — once it wears off and you take the Band-Aid off, you start withdrawing, throwing up, just like if you were on heroin.
“It was illegal if it [was] caught in my bloodstream. It was a narcotic, my friend told me. It was brand new. I told my friend, ‘Could I use this?’ No one ever heard of it.’”
All in all, Tyson is lucky
Fentanyl is a powerful, addictive synthetic opioid that is more potent than heroin and other opioids. Iron Mike using it in the manner he did was outrageously risky, to say the least.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved fentanyl for pain relief if appropriately administered by a medical professional, but it can be deadly even in small doses if taken unprescribed.
“As little as 2 mg of fentanyl—the amount of a few grains of salt—can be fatal,” says the National Institute of Health.
According to the CDC, over 48,000 people in America died of fentanyl overdoses in 2024.
Tyson no stranger to addiction
The boxing titan has been candid about his struggles with addiction, particularly with cocaine and alcohol.
Tyson also said he “smoked weed all my life” and was “born an addict” during an appearance on the “Come and Talk 2 Me” podcast last September.
Even so, Tyson has been a major proponent of people using marijuana to deal with pain as opposed to experimenting with opiates or other harder options.
It sounds like it’s something he knows from experience.
