Boxing: Tyson enters the cannabis business

An intoxicating business: Mike Tyson has laid the foundation for the construction of his own marijuana plantation.

Together with two business partners, the former heavyweight boxing world champion has secured a good 16-hectare plot of land in the desert of California on which Iron Mike intends to grow cannabis in the future.

There are also plans to set up a research centre for training farmers in marijuana cultivation and a campground on the ranch.

Since the beginning of the year, marijuana in California has also been legally sold to customers without medical needs. Experts estimate that up to seven billion US dollars will be spent annually in the sunshine state alone by 2020.

California is the sixth US state after Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Nevada in which marijuana may not be sold only for medical purposes. Tyson’s Ranch is located nearly 180 kilometers north of Los Angeles, near Death Valley National Park.

In 2016, the former professional cyclist Floyd Landis, who was transferred to the cannabis business in Colorado for doping, had already entered the cannabis business.

Tyson, who had become the youngest heavyweight world champion in 1986, was struck by numerous scandals in his career. In 1992 he was convicted of rape and in 1999 of a physical assault on road accident victims and admitted drug use with cocaine, marijuana and antidepressants.