On Thursday, former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson made an appearance at Boston’s Ascend Cannabis Dispensary in honor of his recent partnership with the company. 

Tyson 2.0 is the boxer’s second stint in the cannabis industry, and the brand recently entered an exclusive partnership with Ascend Cannabis to carry Tyson 2.0 products in its dispensaries. Tyson’s cannabis products are also under a partnership with one of the country’s largest cultivators and manufacturers, Columbia Care Inc.

According to Forbes, Tyson said he was a fan of Columbia Care’s flower products, but the psychedelic gummies were definitely his favorite. Ascend is excited to bring Tyson 2.0’s three new cannabis strains to its dispensaries in both Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. 

Vice president of retail for the East Coast of Ascend, Mike Conway, spoke with MassLive about how his company is thrilled to partner with “Iron Mike.” 

Conway explained that “When you look at what he’s doing for cannabis, he’s really working to destigmatize…He really believes in the plant [and] in the properties of helping people,” adding that Ascend’s beliefs perfectly align with the former boxer’s. 

Furthermore, Conway hopes that Ascend’s partnership with Tyson will “bring more of a retail feel to cannabis … destigmatizing cannabis in general and having something so close to TD Garden and downtown Boston is really helping to do that.”

Before Tyson began his venture’s in the cannabis industry, he opened up in an interview with MassLive about his struggles with depression and other mental illnesses. After years of taking opiates are addictive medications, he said he was “ready to die.”

In fact, those opiates made him want to do “nothing but watch marathons of ‘Law & Order’ and eat food,” he told the outlet, adding that he gained nearly 100 pounds after years of boxing, smoking cigarettes, drinking, and “partying every day.”

What helped him see the light was none other than his wife Kiki and the surreal healing powers of psychedelic substances. Tyson told MassLive that Kiki started getting him up and moving, “getting some life in me.” 

Tyson “started doing psychedelics, and I became a believer.” With vastly different, powerful, and personal experiences from psychedelics, Tyson says he’s started thinking clearer, living more at peace, and was able to build relationships with his loved ones. 

“I’m making time for those kids,” he concluded in the interview with MassLive. “Me and my kids have a relationship now. I’m so happy. I don’t want to go back to the dark side. I want to keep in the light.”