Why did Mike Tyson fight Jake Paul? Floyd Russ says that it was the most innocent question that garnered the most unexpected response. He had asked the former world heavyweight boxing champion why he climbed back into the ring at the age of 58. “And he goes, ‘The toad told me to. Anytime I have a big decision to make, I consult the toad.’” The American-born documentary filmmaker knew that his Netflix project to chronicle one of the most compelling, complicated and arguably most misunderstood athletes of the 20th century would be an adventure, but he surely couldn’t have imagined that he’d end up going on a psychedelic trip with the fighter once dubbed “The Baddest Man On The Planet.” “You’re dealing with a very emotional person, his life is a complete roller coaster,” he told CNN Sports. “You might get one Mike Tyson one day and another Mike Tyson the other day. You might even get a different Mike Tyson after lunch. That’s something that we kind of prepared for, but it’s also something you can’t really prepare for.” The four-hour “Tyson,” which dropped on Netflix last month, profiles Tyson’s rise, fall and the subsequent rehabilitation of his reputation and brand. The film chronicles the extreme poverty and even depravity of his upbringing in New York, his hedonistic lifestyle and ill-fated first marriage, the allegations of domestic abuse, the biting of opponents Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, the rape conviction for which he still maintains his innocence, and the personal bereavements that have haunted much of his life. In his role as the interviewer, Russ at times seems to play the role of Tyson’s therapist, leading him back inside some of his darkest memories without getting sucked in himself. “If he’s crying, I’m trying to keep it together,” he said, “trying to move the conversation forward, making sure that we don’t unravel.” When Tyson was on the brink of becoming the youngest ever world heavyweight champion, he lost both his mother and his mentor and trainer Cus D’Amato, and his emotions are rarely far from the surface. “I love the line that he has in the first episode, he’s crying, he’s like, ‘What’s wrong with me? Is there something wrong with me?’” Russ recalled. “‘All these motherf**kers are going to think that I’m weak,’ when it’s quite the opposite. To show your emotions is a strength.” Tyson’s physical strength has been well documented. The laser-focused savagery with which he demolished so many opponents made him irresistible to the fans and the media in the 1980s and ‘90s. But Russ, who went toe to toe with Tyson over eight intense interview sessions spanning close to a year, says that it was Tyson’s vulnerability that was so compelling. “Behind that masculine figure, there’s a fragile man. He’s utterly fragile, and I think that’s something that I find the most refreshing about him,” he said. The Toad Russ says that couldn’t think of a more “epic subject” to tackle as a filmmaker, and he quickly learned that his best strategy in each round of the interrogation was to emulate Tyson’s famous fighting style: Get onto the front foot and take it to the opponent. “With Mike, it’s about respect,” he said. “If you can challenge him, he will respect you. He’s media trained in his own way, meaning he has no media training, and he will either like what you were talking about and respect you and go to an interesting place, or just shut down. If you just ask him all the questions he wants to be asked, he’s not going to respect you.” But if Tyson was going to drop his defences and let him all the way in, Russ came to realize that he would have to do something more. “He was, like, ‘If you do the toad with me, I’m going to answer all your questions.’ That was basically what it came down to, and I was put in a very interesting position,” he said. “Toad” is shorthand for the psychoactive compound 5-MeO-DMT, a Schedule I controlled substance, which is derived from the venom of the Sonoran Desert Toad. Tyson’s wife, Lahika “Kiki” Spicer, describes it as “ego death” and Tyson believes it has helped him face his many demons, kick a cocaine habit and be more present for his family. According to Russ, Tyson has sought out the treatment “hundreds of times.” “At first, I thought it was a joke,” he explained. “He’s like, ‘If it wasn’t for the toad, you wouldn’t be interviewing me. None of it, nobody would even be talking about Mike Tyson. I would probably be dead.’” In the final episode of “Tyson,” the boxer asks Russ to do toad with him. “I don’t know if I can,” the director is heard responding nervously. Russ says that Tyson mentioned it often throughout the project, and when Spicer called to say, “Mike would like to do the toad with you next week,” he knew that he had a decision to make. Ultimately, Russ agreed, knowing that it would also seal the bond between them. Russ says that Tyson never talks about what specifically he experiences while under the influence of the drug, but he documented him inhaling the smoke via a pipe, lying back in a peaceful outdoor setting, grunting, sometimes laughing and sometimes shouting as if in a state of anguish. When it was Russ’s turn, he said that he felt faint for 20 to 30 minutes, he felt as though he was transported to a different place, and then he calmly woke up. “It feels like you’re reborn, basically. The way I describe it is if you could remember your own birth,” he said. There to greet him as he came around was the tattooed face of one of the once-most feared athletes in the world. “There’s Mike Tyson, like two feet to the right of me, looking back at me and he’s just like, ‘How are you doing?’ And I just started laughing,” Russ said. The scene is a metaphor for Tyson’s own rebirth. A man who came from nothing, who had everything and then lost it all, who has spent his life trying to find himself, seems to finally be at some kind of peace. But that doesn’t mean he’s able to watch the film of his life without experiencing some discomfort. Russ says that he hasn’t spoken with Tyson since the film aired, but he’s heard from Spicer. “It was not a matter of him liking it,” Russ told CNN Sports of that conversation. “It was a matter of him being able to stand it. The first episode made him cry, she told me. If he liked it too much, then I would feel like I didn’t do my job.” By Don Riddell, CNN
