Mike Tyson is back in the ring, but it’s not just boxing training or sheer willpower that brought him out of a near 20-year retirement. The former heavyweight champion shared with actress Rosie Perez in a new *Interview Magazine* piece that the unusual force behind his comeback is none other than toad venom, a potent psychedelic substance he claims helped him “meet God” and guided him back to his boxing roots.
Tyson’s spiritual journey with toad venom has been nothing short of extraordinary—and he’s not shy about the process. Describing the venom, formally known as 5-MeO-DMT, Tyson explained that the experience has transformed him, offering a profound perspective that he says reshaped his outlook on life, death, and, ultimately, boxing.
For those unfamiliar, 5-MeO-DMT is derived from the venom of the Colorado River toad and is known for its powerful hallucinogenic effects. According to the Addiction Center, it’s about four to six times stronger than its more widely known psychedelic relative, DMT, which is often associated with intense, transformative experiences.
The process, as Tyson outlined, is not for the faint of heart. “You see a toad, you bust its puss, you put it on like a mirror, and it gets hard. You rub it down until it becomes fine sand, and then you smoke it,” he said. “Then you meet God. And this is what God told me to do.”
Tyson didn’t stop there. He admits to having done the psychedelic toad experience 80 to 90 times since his first encounter, with his wife by his side. The experience was so profound that he even offered it to his adult children, suggesting that the spiritual intensity of the venom gave him a deeper understanding of life’s impermanence.
“I was scared to death,” Tyson confessed. “I had a spiritual death; I died. I’ve dealt with death to the closest magnitude I ever could. But once you go through that process, you realize dying is beautiful.” Tyson, in his own words, saw the toad venom as a way to confront the paradox of life and death.
In true Tyson fashion, he’s also vocal about his thoughts on the drug’s legality. He believes it should be accessible to others but doubts that regulators would ever allow it.
“They don’t want it to be legal because we would have a whole different perspective of life,” he said. “Everybody might start loving each other. And we don’t want that, do we?”
This newfound enlightenment, however unconventional, has reignited Tyson’s passion for boxing, and fans are in for a major event as he gears up for a Netflix-streamed fight against the much younger and ever-controversial Jake Paul.
Tyson’s path back into the ring may be one of the wildest comebacks in sports history, driven by a spiritual encounter unlike any other. In typical Tyson style, he’s challenging norms, crossing boundaries, and making his return to boxing something no one could have predicted. As he steps back into the spotlight, it seems Tyson’s journey is about more than just boxing—it’s about transformation, self-discovery, and, perhaps, a little help from the toad.
