When Mike Tyson, the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, walked across Times Square on April 20, all hell broke loose. A taxi driver screeched to a halt, put his hands together as if in prayer and shouted: “I love you, Mike! God bless.”A group of tourists caught a glimpse of the 57-year boxer and chased after him like a school of wild-eyed fish. Even busy New Yorkers, with somewhere better to be, stopped and screamed: “It’s Iron Mike, y’all!” As Tyson stepped behind a metal fence on Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street, a mother threw her toddler over in hopes he would bless the child with whatever power the ex-champ still possesses. But Tyson—the onetime “baddest man on the planet”—isn’t in New York to fight. Rather, the kid from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn is here to ring in 420, the cannabis high holiday, and promote the expansion of his cannabis brand, Tyson 2.0, to his hometown—as well as a new collaboration with marijuana seed bank Royal Queen Seeds.“The sky is the limit,” says Tyson, who is a cofounder and chief brand officer of the Las Vegas-based weed brand. “I was the champ of the world and now I’m the champ in cannabis. We’re going to conquer the world. We want to be in every country on the planet.”While Iron Mike was prone to being his own hype man as a fighter, he’s not far off with his claims about his budding cannabis company. Tyson 2.0 sells marijuana products—including flower, vapes and edibles made in the shape of Evander Holyfield’s ear, which Tyson notoriously bit during a 1997 match—in 20 states across the U. S., and in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Thailand. The company, through a partnership with PHCANN International in Macedonia, is in the process of launching in Germany’s newly legalized adult-use market as well as the U. K.’s highly restrictive medical marijuana industry. Tyson 2.0 works off a licensing model, cutting deals with franchisees who grow, manufacture, and sell his branded cannabis products. In 2023, the brand generated $150 million in revenue, Forbes estimates, with about 30% coming from cannabis sales and the rest from accessories, CBD, nicotine vaporizers and other products. Tyson 2.0’s flower is branded with names drawn from his legendary boxing career, including Dynamite Cookies (his first nickname was Kid Dynamite) and Knockout OG (Tyson won 44 of his 50 boxing career wins by KO). But the company’s flagship product Mike Bites—the edible in the shape of Holyfield’s half-bitten ear—was developed by Tyson’s wife, Kiki.“My wife is a nut, but she’s brilliant,” Tyson says. “And [one day] she said, ‘Why don’t you use the ear?’” At first, he hated the idea. “‘Get out of here,’” he remembers telling her. “I was a little bitter because the ear got me in a lot of trouble.” But then he realized she was onto something. The decision, while controversial, has paid off. In the highly competitive $28 billion legal cannabis market, celebrity-backed brands usually do not do well. But Tyson 2.
All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2024/04/26/mike-tyson-on-becoming-a-heavy-hitter-in-weed/
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