Mike Tyson Admits To Doing Fentanyl Back In The '90s

Mike Tyson has been famous since he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the age of 20 in 1985. Being renowned for that long has led to him forgetting some of the wilder things that have happened to the average person.

He routinely reminisces in media appearances with peeks into just how wild the ’80s and ’90s were, and recently did it again while speaking on The Katie Miller podcast hosted by the conservative political advisor. 

During their conversation, around the 22-minute mark, Tyson opened up about his drug use, admitting that he used fentanyl as a painkiller during his boxing career, but it gave him terrible withdrawal symptoms.

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“That fentanyl stuff, I’ve done fentanyl before in the late ’90s when it first came here. It was for painkillers; it was a painkiller,” he said. “I used to use it to patch on my toe, but it was like heroin; once you take it off, it wears off. You take the band-aid off, you start withdrawing and throwing up, just like if you were on heroin or something.”

Tyson admits to using it “quite a few times,” thinking it was untraceable and brand new. But then he spoke to a friend, a commissioner who told him to quit it because it was an illegal substance in the boxing world, so he could face consequences if he tested positive during a drug screening.

“Then he looked it up and said, ‘Mike, that’s a narcotic, you couldn’t use it.’ I didn’t know that. I thought of it as a painkiller,” he remembers. 

Some 30 years later, hopefully, Tyson has found a new antidote for pain management since he announced last week that he’ll be stepping back into the ring with Floyd Mayweather for an exhibition match.

The time, venue, or rules haven’t been set, and the public only knows the fight goes down in the spring of 2026. Still, Tyson is excited to hop back into the ring even though he faces a potential beatdown from undefeated Mayweather (50-0, with 27 knockouts), who is 10 years younger than him.

“This fight is something neither the world nor I ever thought would or could happen. However, boxing has entered a new era of the unpredictable — and this fight is as unpredictable as it gets,” Tyson said in a press release, according to ESPN. “I still can’t believe Floyd wants to really do this. It’s going to be detrimental to his health, but he wants to do it, so it’s signed and it’s happening!”

See social media reaction to Tyson admitting to some drug use below.

Mike Tyson Admits To Doing Fentanyl Back in the ’90s: “I Thought Of It As A Painkiller”  was originally published on cassiuslife.com