Mike Tyson Tells Rosie Perez How a Shamanic Revelation Inspired Him to Fight Jake Paul

TYSON: Well, around seven years ago, I tried this spiritual medicine called the toad. 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 become fine sand, and then you smoke it. Then you meet god. And this is what god told me to do.

PEREZ: What? Okay.

PEREZ: Good to know. I love that piece of trivia. My friend, Marci Liroff, told me something. She was a movie producer, and now she’s an intimacy coordinator—

TYSON: That’s awesome. The majority of the world can’t handle intimacy.

PEREZ: Right. Well, she said that after The Hangover , the tattoo artists sued the production company because they didn’t... See more

TYSON: Well, listen. I was scared to death. Because 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. How could death be bad and life be beautiful? It’s a total contradiction.

PEREZ: That’s kind of the same concept in religion. I mean, b... See more

PEREZ: You are fucking hilarious. Do you remember that time? It was a Deontay Wilder fight at the Barclays Center. You were there with Kiki and we were sitting next to you.

TYSON: The actor guy. He’s a good actor. I seen him on television the other day.

PEREZ: Yeah, Oscar Isaac. He saw me and he’s like, “I want to meet Mike Tyson.” So I go over to yo... See more

PEREZ: And you saw god?

TYSON: No, you don’t see him. You feel him.

PEREZ: Memories of the physical abuse I endured and some of the awful things that I have done to people. It fears me and inspires me. When I started studying Shaolin kung fu, it was the first time someone told me, “You need your fear. Fear is your friend. You have to learn to walk with it and talk to it and manage it and understand that it’s your s... See more