Mike Tyson repeatedly threw punches in the face of a fellow passenger on a plane after they became “aggressive.” Then, the punching target has hired a lawyer who claimed Tyson used excessive force…
And now, it seems as though Mike Tyson had no problem posing for a photo with a fan just minutes after throwing the punches.
The incident happened on board a flight that was due to leave San Francisco International Airport.
Scroll on to find out more…
It’s needless to say that Mike Tyson is one of the biggest names in the world of boxing.
Tyson made his first professional debut into the boxing world back in 1985 when he was just eighteen-years-old.
He began his career with nineteen consecutive knockouts and by winning his first thirty-seven fights.
Not only that, but by the ripe age of twenty years old, Tyson was the heavyweight champion of the world.
In the early years, his success garnered him nicknames such as Iron Mike and Kid Dynamite.
And later he went on to be known as The Baddest Man on the Planet.
Tyson had many highs in his career over the years…
But with that also came many lows.
And eventually, came the downfall of his boxing career.
His controversial behavior lost him a lot of respect in the sport…
Tyson experienced a series of mishaps in his life — serving a prison sentence for s*xual assault and biting off an opponent’s ear, just to name a few.
Which led a lot of people to argue that Tyson had lost his game.
Then in 2005, Tyson’s professional boxing career came to an end.
Tyson shocked the world as he announced his retirement from the sport.
Although, he did return to the sport fifteen years later in an exhibition bout.
In 2020, Tyson came out of retirement to face Roy Jones Jr in a bout where knockouts were not permitted.
Aside from his struggles in his later boxing career, Tyson also faced a battle with addiction.
He has battled with alcohol and opiate addictions throughout his life and has previously admitted to being under the influence during many of his big fights.
Tyson’s lavish and outlandish lifestyle choices were often met with scrutiny.
Especially, as at time they left him with a mountain of debt to shift through.
However, in more recent years, Tyson has stayed away from controversy.
And, he’s even found a new passion.
In 2016, the heavyweight champion launched “Tyson Holistic.”
The company sells a number of marijuana products and merchandise.
After years of using opiates to treat his pain, Tyson is now heavily-invested in the use of CBD as his primary pain relief method.
In an interview, Tyson explained: “I’ve been fighting for over 20 years, and my body has a lot of wear and tear. I had two surgeries and I used marijuana to calm my nerves, and it would take the pain away … But before, they had me on those opiates, and those opiates had me all screwed up.”
Tyson credits the use of CBD and medicinal marijuana for helping him to conquer his opiate addiction.
Tyson Holistics now invests in a number of different companies that use CBD in their products, as well as developing and launching their own cannabis-oriented brands.
But now, Tyson has found himself in hot water once again…
As he has repeatedly punched a passenger on a plane.
The incident happened onboard a flight due to leave San Francisco International Airport and fly to Florida, TMZ reports.
A witness on the plane told the outlet that to begin with Tyson was “cool” with the passengers onboard.
They said that Tyson even agreed to take pictures with them and was “patient” with an “overly excited” man who was sitting behind Tyson.
The outlet reports that the excited man repeatedly tried to talk to Tyson which prompted the boxer to tell the man to “chill.”
However, as the man continued to talk, Tyson threw punches.
Video footage obtained by the outlet shows Tyson throwing punches to the mans face, leaving blood on his forehead.
The witness told TMZ that moments after the incident, Tyson left the plane.
A statement issued by Joann Mignano, a representative for Tyson, said Tyson was involved in an incident with an “aggressive passenger.”
According to the Metro, the statement said: “Unfortunately, Mr. Tyson had an incident on a flight with an aggressive passenger who began harassing him and threw a water bottle at him while he was in his seat.”
The outlet reports that San Francisco police confirmed 2 people were detained after being called to an incident.
Although they declined to identify those involved, police said in a statement: “That subject provided minimal details of the incident and refused to cooperate further with the police investigation,” the outlet reports.
The man Mike punched hired a lawyer.
The man who was later identified as Melvin Townsend III, could bring a lawsuit against the boxer, the lawyer, Matt Morgan, told TMZ.
The lawyer claims that Tyson used excessive force and should’ve used ‘greater restraint’.
He explained: “At a certain point, Mr. Tyson clearly became agitated by an overly excited fan and began to strike him in an excessive manner. This situation could have been avoided simply by contacting the flight attendant. Our client denies throwing a water bottle prior to being struck by Mr. Tyson.
“To state the obvious, as one of the greatest fighters of all time, Mr. Tyson should have exercised greater restraint before using his hands on an overly excited fan.”
And now, it looks like Tyson had no problem taking a picture with a fan just moments after punching another fan…
Or who we could probably assume is an ex-fan, now.
But first, let’s look at what people had to say about the incident…
Ryan Garcia, an American professional boxer, spoke out on Twitter, saying: “Mike Tyson who is a legend and An Icon was being super harassed on a plane and no one told that man to relax and leave Mike alone, obviously It’s not cool to punch someone but really someone should have stepped in for Mike. LOVE YOU MIKE!”
The host of The Tim Black Show, Tim Black, also took to the social media platform to share his views…
“Anyone can see that annoying man purposely provoked Mike Tyson to punch him. The judge should award him a settlement: $2. Just enough to buy some bandaids,” he said.
Another thought the passenger deserved his reaction…
“Just saw the Mike Tyson video on the plane. That chap deserved every punch that landed on him. Leave the man alone,” they wrote.
So, it seems many are team Tyson, and Tyson is team fans…
If they don’t bother him too much.
Because he was smiling and posing outside of the airport gate with a fan who respected his space.
The fan, as per TMZ, gave Tyson a book, called Basic Economics, and said that the boxing champion was “friendly.”
When he landed in Miami, he was still holding the book, so, we could only assume he thoroughly enjoyed the reading material.
If you want to see the photograph for yourself, take a look here.
What do you think?