Pete
Photo by Super Festivals via Wikimedia Commons
We’re not condoning violence, at least not officially, but any yoyo that harasses Mike Tyson in an enclosed, inescapable tube 30,000 feet in the air kind of has it coming.
It’s usually Mike Tyson saying crazy things, but this time, it was a fellow passenger’s words which landed Iron Mike on the front page of the internet.
During an April 2022 Jet Blue flight from San Francisco to Florida, Tyson was caught on video pummeling Melvin Townsend, the man sitting behind him.
The beginning of the recording (originally published by TMZ) shows Townsend, who is apparently a fan of the legendary assault artist, standing up and aggressively talking into his ear while then engaging with the person filming. At some point, Townsend allegedly threw a water bottle at him, but that wasn’t caught on tape.
NEW: Mike Tyson is facing a “pre-litigation settlement demand” for $450,000 from a man who he beat up on a JetBlue flight.
Back in 2022, Tyson was caught on camera beating up passenger, Melvin Townsend.
The man says his life has been hard since the incident and has to deal with… pic.twitter.com/93QUm29wbg
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 30, 2023
Now, Townsend’s attorneys are demanding a $450,000 settlement because of the man’s injuries, which reportedly included a concussion, impaired vision and cervical radiculopathy, “a condition that results in neurological dysfunction caused by compression and inflammation of any of the nerve roots of your cervical spine (neck),” per the Cleveland Clinic. The pre-litigation letter was sent to the NY Post.
In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Tyson did acknowledge that he probably overreacted.
“Hey listen, um, I’m usually good at these things. I was wrong, it should have never happened… that’s me back in my primitive, child stages …. I shouldn’t have done it, but I was just irritated, tired, high, pissed off …”
“I’m so glad you did it,” Kimmel replied.
Public acknowledgement aside, Tyson’s lawyers have been steadfast in their refusal to accept what they’re describing as an almost half a million dollar “shakedown.”
Melvin Townsend has a criminal history himself, with previous convictions of fraud, grand theft, burglary, possession of controlled substances and trafficking in stolen property.
