Mike Tyson, JAKE PAUL, medical, incident, contain, scare, boxing
by Sharelle B. McNair
September 11, 2025
Fentanyl is defined as a highly potent synthetic opioid that is now legal in the U.S. as it has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pain relief.
Boxing legend Mike Tyson made a striking admission during a recent interview, confessing that he used the drug fentanyl “quite a few times” throughout his 1990s boxing career, Fox News reports.
During an interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” the heavyweight champ touched on his well-known usage of marijuana after host Katie Miller asked him how he balances being a user and a role model. After stating that he isn’t sure, given “this is what I do and that’s part of his life as a human being, Tyson revealed that he used fentanyl as a painkiller several times, admitting that it’s like heroin.
“It was a painkiller, and I used to use it to patch up my toe,” Tyson said. “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.”
Despite it helping with the pain that came along with the sport, Tyson said he had no choice but to stop since it was illegal back then, especially in the sports industry. “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,” he continued.
According to the New York Post, fentanyl is defined as a highly potent synthetic opioid that is now legal in the U.S. as it has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pain relief, but the warning comes as it can be fatal if given unprescribed in small doses. The boxing champ has become an anti-fentanyl advocate in retirement after seeing firsthand the effects of it. In 2009, his close friend Arturo Gatti passed away after a lengthy battle with opioids.
Back in June 2009, he teamed up with acting US Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba to educate people on the dangers of fentanyl while taking a tour of a US Drug Enforcement Agency laboratory in New York City. “Let’s keep America safe. Fentanyl is killing us,” he wrote on X with corresponding photos.
While Tyson is a vocal advocate of marijuana usage for athletes, saying they “play better” after smoking, studies have shown that fentanyl is nothing to play around with, particularly for older Black men. Data from a 2024 study highlighted how a majority of men in the U.S. between the ages of 54 and 73 have died from opioid overdoses due to fentanyl.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates roughly 48,422 people died in 2024 from consuming fentanyl illicitly.
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