Remember that drunk idiot who annoyed Mike Tyson on a plane so much he eventually got a can of whoop ass opened on him? He’s unsurprisingly demanding $450,000 in damages…
If you don’t recall this incident, let me lay it out for you.
Mike Tyson boarded a JetBlue plane in San Francisco for a 10:30pm flight to Florida back in April of 2022. Obviously, it’s a big deal when Iron Mike is in the area, so some passengers talked with him and he even took a few selfies with some fans, including the main character of this story.
A 35 year old named Melvin Townsend who was sitting right behind Tyson apparently wouldn’t stop bothering him and Mike asked numerous times for him to just sit down and be quiet. Well, that didn’t happen and things escalated to the point where Mike gave the little twerp a beat down that he won’t soon forget.
Later it was revealed that the guy had thrown a water bottle at Tyson and had a long criminal record to boot.
Given the video footage of the event, the eyewitnesses that said the guy was being over the top annoying, and the fact that no charges were filed, I thought this was just going to be settled and everyone would go one about their lives.
But of course, this is America and seemingly nothing with celebrities can happen these days without lawyers getting involved and it was just announced that Mike Tyson was hit was a demand for $450,000 in damages.
While this is not a lawsuit, the Townsend’s lawyer said he is preparing a lawsuit if Mike doesn’t pay up.
According to the New York Post, Townsend lawyer said in a letter:
“As a former undisputed heavyweight champion, the potential to cause severe injuries to another person goes without question. There were several other remedies available to Mr. Tyson, but he chose physical violence… Immediately after the incident, Mr. Townsend had a severe headache and neck pain (and) is still suffering with the effects of the assault to this day.”
Tyson’s lawyer replied by saying:
“I have received a shakedown letter related to some instigator’s harassment of Mike a year ago and the aftermath. There will be no shakedown payment.”
Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming…
It’s pretty obvious that both the Townsend and Tyson shouldn’t have acted the way they did, so you think they could both accept their mistakes and just go on about their lives with another story to tell, but nope, we’ve got to try and monetize every single situation we can these days.
I hope Tyson’s presumably much better paid lawyer will run circles around this guy. If you don’t know not to mess with Mike Tyson, that’s on you…
Here’s some Tyson KO highlights just for fun.
