How Mike Tyson became a tycoon in the global cannabis industry

When Mike Tyson, the former undisputed world heavyweight champion walked through Times Square on April 20, chaos ensued. A taxi driver stopped abruptly, clasped his hands together as if he was praying, and shouted, “I love you, Mike! God bless you.”

A group of tourists caught a glimpse of the 57-year-old boxer and chased after him like a school of wide-eyed fish. Even busy New Yorkers, with somewhere better to be, stopped and shouted, “It’s Iron Mike, guys!” As Tyson walked away behind a metal fence at Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street, a mother threw her young son over the top in hopes that he would be blessed with whatever power the former champion still possessed.

But Tyson — the once “baddest man on the planet” — isn’t in New York to fight. Instead, the kid from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn is here to celebrate 420, the cannabis holiday, and promote the expansion of his cannabis brand, Tyson 2.0in his hometown — as well as a new collaboration with cannabis seed bank Royal Queen Seeds.

“The sky is the limit,” says Tyson, who is co-founder and director of the Las Vegas-based cannabis brand. “I was the champion of the world and now I am the champion in cannabis. Let’s conquer the world. We want to be in every country on the planet.”

While Iron Mike was prone to being his own promoter as a wrestler, he’s not far off with his claims about his growing cannabis company. Tyson 2.0 sells marijuana products — including flowers, vaporizers and edibles made in the shape of Evander Holyfield’s ear, which Tyson infamously bit during a 1997 fight — in 20 U.S. states, and in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Thailand. The company, through a partnership with PHCANN International in Macedonia, is in the process of launching into the newly legalized adult-use market in Germany, as well as the highly restrictive medical marijuana industry in the United Kingdom.

Tyson 2.0 works with a licensing model, entering into agreements with franchisees who grow, manufacture and sell their private-label cannabis products. In 2023, the brand generated US$150 million in revenue, estimates the Forbes, with around 30% coming from cannabis sales and the remainder from accessories, CBD, nicotine vaporizers and other products.

The Tyson 2.0 flower is marked with names taken from his legendary boxing career, including Dynamite Cookies (his first nickname was Kid Dynamite) and Knockout OG (Tyson won 44 of his 50 boxing victories by knockout). But the company’s flagship product, Mike Bites — the edible shaped like Holyfield’s half-bitten ear — was developed by Tyson’s wife, Kiki.

“My wife is crazy, but she’s brilliant,” says Tyson. “AND [um dia] She said, ‘Why don’t you use your ear?’” At first, he hated the idea. “‘Get out of here,’” he remembers telling her. “I was a little bitter because the ear caused me a lot of trouble.” But then he realized that she was on the right path.

The decision, although controversial, was successful. In the highly competitive $28 billion legal cannabis market, celebrity-backed brands are often unsuccessful. But Tyson 2.0 enjoys its position as the industry’s top-selling celebrity brand, according to cannabis data firm Headset.

“Do you know what is funny? When I bit off Holyfield’s ear, they took $3 million from me,” he says, explaining that the ear incident was the lowest point of his career. “I made more than that taking photos of biting other people’s ears. Me and Holyfield are the only ones still making money from a fight that happened 30 years ago.”

Founded in 2021, Tyson 2.0 is wholly owned by Carma Holdco Inc., based in Las Vegas, which Tyson co-founded with private equity and cannabis entrepreneur Adam Wilks. Tyson is one of the largest shareholders in the company, which also owns the legendary wrestler’s cannabis brand Ric Flair – Ric Flair Drip – and the Grammy-winning hip-hop artist’s marijuana line Futurecalled EVOL.

Marijuana has been a part of Tyson’s life since his childhood in Brownsville, where his mother was a sex worker — or as he puts it, “a woman of the night.” He still doesn’t know exactly who his father is, but he’s been told that a pimp named Curly Kirkpatrick was his father while he was growing up. His first experience with marijuana was when he was a child. “I was crying and my mom’s friend said, ‘Hey, I’ll give him something’ and she let me smoke,” he recalls. “I never stopped.”

Tyson grew up committing crimes and getting into trouble — by the age of 12 he had already been arrested 38 times. But after being sent to a rehabilitation school in upstate New York, he caught the attention of Cus D’Amato, a legendary trainer, who helped him become the youngest boxer to win the heavyweight championship at age 20. Kid Dynamite decimated his competitors — he won his first 37 fights, almost all by knockout. But in 1996, he was arrested in Indiana and convicted of rape — serving three years in prison — a charge he denies to this day.

In 2009, his four-year-old daughter died in an accident and he struggled with cocaine addiction. In the process, Tyson went from boxing hero to undisputed villain.

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For Jason Wild, president and chief investment officer of cannabis hedge fund JW Asset Management, investing in Tyson was not an obvious choice. Most Celebrity Cannabis Brands Fail in Market — Hip-Hop Artist’s Marijuana Company Snoop Dogg it’s no longer operating, for example — but there’s something about Tyson and its story that resonates well with consumers. “He’s painfully open about everything, he shares his struggle — he’s had good days, he’s achieved greatness, and he’s had bad days,” says Wild. “That undeniable authenticity sits well with people.”

Tyson says he remains humble, even though he has come so far in his life. From Brownsville, to world champion, to co-founder of the most successful celebrity brand in the cannabis industry. The best way he can explain is by asking questions.

“Why is God, the universe, or whatever we believe in, why am I the face of it?” Tyson asks. “An uneducated guy, Mike Tyson, why am I the face of cannabis and psychedelics? Because I? I can’t even spell cannabis and psychedelics.”

And Tyson will soon be returning to the ring for the first time since fighting Roy Jones Jr. in a draw in 2020. Tyson will be 58 years old on July 20th when he faces Jake Paula 27-year-old YouTube influencer and entrepreneur turned boxer, in an unsanctioned exhibition fight at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Tyson says he is taking his opponent seriously and has been training three times a day. He also gave up his favorite vices. “I’m currently living my life disciplinedly: I haven’t smoked marijuana or had sex in six weeks,” he says. “I haven’t done this since I was a kid.”

“I hate that I can’t smoke,” Tyson continues, “but I’m doing it like I love it; I hate that I can’t sleep with my wife, but I’m doing it like she loves it.”

In addition to Tyson’s decades of experience as a professional boxer, he has a secret weapon that Paul should be worried about. Known for his appreciation for psychedelic substances, Tyson says that while he is abstaining from smoking marijuana during training camp, he is still taking his “frog medicine,” a reference to his use of DMT derived from the Sonoran Desert frog. Tyson says that once he “made the frog,” he found God and learned about his purpose in life.

“I was simply born to conquer the world,” says Tyson. “Regardless of what I have to endure to do it, that’s what I’m here for.”