NEW YORK: Former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson Sunday confessed that he was on the verge of dying from drug addiction and alcoholism.

"I wanna live my sober life. I don't wanna die. I'm on the verge of dying, because I'm a vicious alcoholic," said he speaking on ESPN's Friday Night Fights.

"I'm a bad guy sometimes. I did a lot of bad things, and I want to be forgiven. So in order for me to be forgiven, I hope they can forgive me. I wanna change my life, I wanna live a different life now."

The 47-year-old admitted to being a continual substance abuser but was hopeful he was finally becoming clean.

"I haven't drank or took drugs in six days, and for me that's a miracle," he revealed. "I've been lying to everybody else that think I was sober, but I'm not. This is my sixth day. I'm never gonna use again."

He has been in rehab three times and in 2012 said he had been sober for three years.

Tyson said he thought of killing himself five years ago. But the 2009 death of his daughter Exodus, four, who was strangled by a cord while playing on a treadmill, made him realize he must change.(Agencies)