Mike Tyson reportedly had fans spend £81 (a little over $100 USD) in-store to gain a raffle ticket for his meet and greet at the grand opening of his cannabis coffee shop in Amsterdam.
The boxing legend met with fans as he opened the doors to his Mike Tyson Coffee Shop 2.0 in the Dutch capital this week. However, they had to fork out a lot of money in the store to gain a raffle entry to try and get to meet their idol.
Speaking to the press at the store in Spuistraat, he said: “This is what I’ve always wanted. I’ve been here on many occasions as a teenager, and I’ve always wanted to be part of the cannabis business.”
It was previously reported that cannabis products he has sold since 2016 through his Tyson Holistic label are making him an estimated £500,000 a month.
The 57-year-old world heavyweight champ previously claimed he stays in shape by taking magic mushrooms every day and smoking cannabis.
He was quoted by the Daily Star last year as saying: “Cannabis is good to workout on for me. I just wish I was smoking back when I was fighting – I really lost out there from an athlete’s perspective. But if I’d smoked during my boxing career, I probably wouldn’t have been so aggressive. I also like taking mushrooms and smoking before fighting. I take psychedelics every day, mushrooms.”
Tyson, infamous for his ear-bite fight in 1997 against Evander Holyfield, is CEO of Tyson 2.0, the cannabis brand that has produced the best-selling edible “Mike Bites” — shaped exactly like Holyfield’s ear.
The boxer added: “I’ve been making hundreds of thousands of dollars just from images of biting people’s ears. It’s just incredible and I’m very grateful. It could have been bad. It could have turned out really bad.”
Tyson’s business also offers premium marijuana strains and extracts, and he is building a 418-acre marijuana-themed holiday resort he hopes will be home to a music festival to rival Coachella.
Along with a luxury hotel and the lure of glamping tents, there will be a Tyson University on-site that will aim to teach cannabis cultivation tips to wannabe farmers.
Tyson added he believes cannabis oil products can help beat other addictions: “I’ve been fighting for over 20 years, and my body has a lot of wear and tear. I had two surgeries and I used marijuana to calm my nerves, and it would take the pain away … but before, they had me on those opiates, and those opiates had me all screwed up.”
Tyson suffers from sciatica and uses the drug for medicinal purposes.
