Mike Tyson is one of the greatest boxing champions of all time, but in a recent interview, he revealed that he relied on heavy painkillers at times during the height of his career, including fentanyl.
“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. I used to use it to patch on my toe, but it was like heroin, once you take it off, wears off. You take the band-aid off, you start withdrawing and throwing up, just like if you were on heroin or something,” he said on The Katie Miller Podcast.
Mike Tyson endured many beatings during his legendary career and admitted to relying on fentanyl at one point. pic.twitter.com/CGHEcIMBHV
— Laszlo Varga (@LaszloRealtor) September 11, 2025
Fentanyl is a powerful analgesic and anesthetic, and in prescription form, fentanyl is used to treat severe pain, particularly after surgery or for advanced-stage cancer. It is also a volatile and addictive illicit street drug, and a tiny dose can be lethal. It is often mixed into other drugs without the user’s knowledge.
Tyson also revealed that even though he took the drug more than once, he managed to avoid becoming an addict. The former champion says that he did not stay on the drug for too long, as it was a narcotic and could have led to the end of his career.
“My friend told me cuz it’s brand new. I told my friend ‘Hey can I use this?’ because he was a commissioner. ‘Will I be able to use this?’ You know, no one ever heard of it. 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.”
