Mike Tyson and Rosie Perez had a very, very strange conversation

On Friday, boxer Mike Tyson returns to the ring for a YouTuber-turned-boxer livestream Netflix fight Jake Paul. In a sit-down with actor Rosie Perez performed for Interview, Tyson said he had a simple reason for agreeing to a fight with Paul: influence.

“You have a YouTuber with 70 million fans,” Tyson explained. “No champion has so many fans. And I’m the greatest fighter since the beginning of life, so what does that mean now? That creates an explosion of excitement. And that’s what life is about: making the biggest impact before you die.”

The 58-year-old fighter began his boxing career in 1985 at the age of 18 and officially retired in 2005. His rise was marked by numerous scandals, including his divorce from Robin Data, who accused him of abusing her. Tyson told a biographer that the time he punched Givens and threw her against a wall, it was “the best punch I ever threw in my entire life.” In 1992, he was convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman, for which he served several years in prison. He has maintained his innocence. In 2003 he told ESPN“I just hate her guts. She put me in a state where I don’t know,” Tyson said. “I really wish I did that now. But now I really want to rape her.”

Last year, another woman filed a $5 million civil suit against Tyson, alleging he raped her in the back of a limousine decades ago. According to USA TodayTyson has denied the allegations and his legal team plans to file opposition papers by November 18, a few days after his fight with Paul. Paul said he plans to make $40 million from the fight; Tyson does reportedly estimated at approximately $20 million.

These events have seemingly not hindered Tyson’s fame or popularity. In 2008 he was the subject of his own feature documentary, Tyson. In 2009 he played a brilliant caricature of himself The hangover. As Perez tells Tyson, “I’ve always defended you from day one. I told people, ‘He’s a funny son of a bitch.’

Tyson’s past and the new rape allegation were not discussed in the interview, but Perez opened up about her own experiences with abuse. “Memories of the physical abuse I suffered and some of the horrible things I did to people,” she said. “It scares me and inspires me. When I started studying Shaolin kung fu, it was the first time someone said to me, “You need your fear. Fear is your friend. You have to learn to deal with it, talk to it, deal with it and understand that it is your superpower.’”

Tyson also talked to Perez about hallucinating from toad poison, biting Evander Holyfield‘s earand what he perceived was a touch with death. “Hey, life isn’t over yet. We’re still fighting. We will only find out on the day of our death,” he said. “There’s no way I should be here talking to you right now. All my friends are dead. They overdosed, they had AIDS. My boyfriend and I both had sex with this girl at the same time and they both died of AIDS. I didn’t contract AIDS. Raw too.”

Perez responded in awe. “That’s crazy,” she said. “You have a spirit that hovers over you.”