Everyone knows Mike Tyson. Almost nobody knows the business.
Here’s the short version: the scariest man to ever step in a boxing ring actually built one of the few celebrity
brands that actually works. And then he became CEO of the whole company.Tyson has been open for years about what cannabis did for his
; including a life with less pain, fewer pills, and a clearer head. he launched with business partner Chad Bronstein, with a plan most celebrity brands never bother with: real distribution. Instead of slapping a name on a jar in one state, Tyson 2.0 partnered with the biggest multi-state operators in the country such as Columbia Care first, then names like Verano, Green Thumb, Cresco Labs, Curaleaf, and Ascend. The brand reached 24 states within about a year, plus Canada.And the products leaned all the way into the mythology. The flagship edible is called Mike Bites. They are gummies. They are shaped like ears. Yes, really and yes
. As in Evander Holyfield’s ear, circa 1997. They went viral and sold out in multiple states on release. Then, in the greatest redemption arc in edible history, Tyson and Holyfield actually went into business together in a partnership that produced , and later Holyfield’s own cannabis line. No body parts were shed in the process. The bite became the brand. You cannot write this stuff.That being said, Tyson 2.0 is the crown jewel of
, the Las Vegas-based parent company whose portfolio includes Tyson 2.0, Ric Flair Drip, and Evol by Future. The thesis is simple: take a celebrity whose cannabis love is authentic, not licensed, and build a real product company around them. raised a total of $15 million from JW Asset Management, Arcadian Capital and others. And JW’s president Jason Wild has said he turns down essentially every celebrity weed pitch that crosses his desk, because “people sniff you out in two seconds” if the product isn’t good. He made an exception for Tyson. Ric Flair came aboard after “Ric Flair Drip” (trademarked off the Metro Boomin and Offset song), with a $250,000 check and an equity stake.The
is genuinely global now with products in some , cannabis cafés in Amsterdam and Cape Town, distribution in Thailand, Germany’s new adult-use market, and the U.K.’s restrictive medical program. Reported annual revenue has passed $50 million.And then, there’s a plot twist.
In 2025,
Why does this one work when most celebrity weed brands die on the discount shelf? Everyone around Tyson says the same thing: he shows up.
and Flair are constantly at dispensaries, trade shows, and events promoting the brands — in a market where shoppers are ruthless about price and allergic to phoniness, authenticity turns out to be the whole ballgame.The knockout artist became a distribution artist.