Mike Tyson Had a ‘Disintegrating Dose of Foot Fungus’ That He Admits Is ‘Still Kicking My Ass Now’

Mike Tyson is fighting a different kind of opponent these days.

The boxing legend, 59, officially hung up his gloves two decades ago, but he revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live that he’s currently in battle with an opponent outside of the ring: Foot fungus.

The topic came up when late night host Jimmy Kimmel asked Tyson why he never wore socks in the ring, a choice the undisputed heavyweight champion has spoken about at length in the past.

“Why no socks?” the eponymous talk show host, 57, asked him again during the Monday, Nov. 10 episode. “This drives me crazy, I’ll be honest,” he added.

Tyson explained: “I only used to for fighting where that was my image. It was real hardcore, no socks.”

However, that move wasn’t necessarily hygiene-friendly in the long run.

“But then, I somehow discovered that I had a disintegrating dose of foot fungus,” the boxing icon told the late night host, adding, “And it was really bad. It’s still really bad now.”

Kimmel asked, “Would you say that foot fungus is your greatest opponent of all?”

“Well, I would have to say so because it’s still kicking my ass now,” Tyson replied.

Kimmel joked that Tyson’s admission would make for a great Desenex commercial, a reference to the anti-fungal foot powder used to treat athlete’s foot.

“Desenex can not help me,” the athlete doubled down. “My toes look like they blew up,” he added.

Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 at age 39 after his loss to Kevin McBride, but the famed boxer returned to the ring for an exhibition fight against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020 and a match against YouTube star Jake Paul in 2024, when he was 58.

Tyson lost to Paul, 28, in a unanimous decision after eight rounds last November, and opened up to PEOPLE exclusively about what he learned from the defeat as he now prepares to fight fellow boxing legend Floyd Mayweather next spring.

The boxing star said he will address “things that happened during my first fight with Jake” and his “ideology about all that” in his one-man-show “Return of the Mike”.

“It’s going to be really interesting. I can’t believe, since the last time I did this, I’ve fought… What? Two times, going on three times…I’ll do better in the next one,” he promised.