Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, police confirmed he was reported to have punched a photographer.
Police said the troubled 43-year-old had been detained following an altercation at the airport’s terminal seven.
Source tell us that Tyson claims the photographer struck him in an apparent attempt to provoke him.
<Ummmm, who would be that stupid????>
The photographer told investigators that Tyson punched him in the face and tried to take the film from his camera, according to the source, who spoke on condition that he not be named because it was an open investigation.
Both men want to press battery charges, so police placed both under arrest, the source said.
The photographer was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries to his face.
The incident comes after a difficult year for Tyson, who suffered personal tragedy in May when his four-year-old daughter died after accidentally strangling herself with a loose cord on a treadmill.
Tyson exploded on the boxing scene in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986 at the age of 20.
Considered unbeatable for the rest of the decade, Tyson’s career went off the rails when he suffered a shock upset to James “Buster” Douglas in 1990.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty queen at a pageant in Indianapolis, Indiana. He served three years of a six-year sentence and was released in 1995 – and has always denied raping the woman.
“Iron Mike” reclaimed the heavyweight throne but lost to Evander Holyfield in 1996 and notoriously bit Holyfield’s ears twice in a 1997 rematch, adding banishment to his ridicule.
Tyson was jailed again in 1999 for assaulting two people following a traffic accident. Tyson filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and retired after losses to Britain’s Danny Williams in 2004 and American Kevin McBride in 2005.
Tyson was also sentenced in 2007 to 24 hours in jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence in Arizona.
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