Retired former boxing champ Mike Tyson said in an interview with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer that he isn’t sure how much longer he will live as he battles with alcoholism. In the interview, he said that he is ‘on the verge of dying.’

“I won't survive if I don't get help,” he told Lauer in the interview, which aired today. The 47-year-old said that he has stayed sober for the past 12 days, but he has been “mean and irritable” since.

“It's a real challenge because...I don't know if I like this sober guy,” Tyson said. “It's hard for me to live normal. Straight is hard. Livin' straight life is hard."

According to The New York Daily News, the interview with Lauer followed Tyson’s shocking comments to the media at the Turning Stone Resort in upstate, New York Friday.

“I'm on the verge of dying because I'm a vicious alcoholic,” Tyson told reporters. “I haven't drank or took drugs in six days, and for me that's a miracle. I've been lying to everybody else that think I was sober, but I'm not." He vowed to never use again, which was met with applause from the reporters.

This revelation came while Tyson has been in the midst of transforming his life as a celebrity. He’s appeared in The Hangover, starred on Broadway in Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, has a Fox Sports 1 show called Being Mike Tyson starting in September and an HBO show airing in November. But despite that success, he’s still dealing with inner demons.

“Yeah, it is kinda strange and scary,” he told Lauer. “I was born that way.”

He has admitted his failures, adding, “No one failed more than I did. Nobody's seen more than I've seen. I'm the king of the barbarians. There's no one that could surpass me, and the pain I've endured. But I can deal with it. I can handle it.”

Lauer did get Tyson to talk about his 1992 rape conviction and asked why he never admitted to doing it, even after spending three years in prison for the charge.

“I don't think I have to make amends to that because I've done nothing,” he replied. “I really didn't do anything to her. I didn't rape her. I didn't beat her. I didn't do anything to her and I'm not going to make amends. I already made amends to myself. But to her, no.”

You can watch the full, 26-minute interview with Lauer below:

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