Mike Tyson's representatives have shed light on what provoked the former heavyweight champ to punch a man on a Wednesday night JetBlue flight from San Francisco to Miami.
In video of the incident posted on Twitter, the passenger is seen standing over Tyson's seat, talking loudly, and waving his arms while Tyson sits quietly in his seat. Video footage of the altercation made available by TMZ then shows the man, appearing to be Tyson, repeatedly punching the passenger in the face.
"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," representatives for Tyson said in a statement to the New York Post.
Officials confirmed that San Francisco police responded to a "physical altercation" that took place on a plane at the airport's domestic terminal, according to the outlet. Tyson was not named in the initial report.
"Officers arrived and detained two subjects that were believed to be involved in the incident. One subject was treated at the scene for non-life-threatening injuries. That subject provided minimal details of the incident and refused to cooperate further with the police investigation," police said in a statement.
After the incident, a source close to Tyson told TMZ that one of the two men — presumably the one involved in the altercation — was "extremely intoxicated" ... and "wouldn't stop provoking" the boxer in his seat. Another passenger, Sarah Burchfield, confirmed to SFGate that she saw the man before the flight at an airport bar, where he was loud and quarrelsome.
"When I boarded the flight, I thought, 'Oh, no, that drunk guy is on our flight,'" she said, explaining that she passed Tyson's seat in the first class section after boarding the plane.
"I'm like, 'Oh my god, Mike Tyson is on this flight!' He said hi, and I kept walking," she said. "The belligerent guy was sitting right behind him, and I saw they were interacting."
Shortly after, she heard the confrontation.
"Obviously, it has to be from Mike Tyson … because it's Mike Tyson," she continued. "I don't recall it being acknowledged by the flight attendants. It happened, we all looked and gawked, then moved on."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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