Tyson remembers friendship with rapper

NEW YORK (AP) — When Mike Tyson (photo) looks back on his friendship with Tupac Shakur, he thinks about the rapper’s big heart, explosive anger — and the one regret he has about their relationship.

“He always wanted me to smoke weed (marijuana) with him, and I never did it, and I wish I did,” Tyson said in a recent phone interview.

Tyson said he declined because he was a closet smoker and didn’t want it to get out that he smoked the drug. Now, when he looks back on the lost opportunity, he says: “That’s my biggest regret.”

Tyson’s friendship with Shakur is the subject of a new documentary, One Night in Vegas: Tyson & Tupac, which airs Tuesday on ESPN.

The 25-year-old rapper was shot after a Tyson fight in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996; he died six days later.

“He didn’t last long, but the time he did last, every minute, every tenth of a moment was explosive,” Tyson said.

The docu chronicles their relationship, which Tyson said took hold when he was imprisoned in 1992 for rape.