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Mike Tyson - Source: Reuters
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was arrested on
Thursday after brawling with a celebrity photographer at Los
Angeles International Airport and injuring the man's head, police
said.
The photographer, who was not immediately identified, also was
arrested. He suffered a cut to his forehead and was taken to a
hospital. It was not known if Tyson was hurt.
"There's a lot of different versions to the story," Los Angeles
Airport Police Sergeant Jim Holcomb said. "That's all going to come
out later. But in this particular case, both individuals are going
to be pressing charges for battery."
The Los Angeles Times, citing an unnamed source, said Tyson told
police the photographer struck him in an attempt to provoke him,
and the photographer claimed Tyson punched him in the face and
tried to take film from his camera.
The scuffle is the latest incident between celebrities and
aggressive paparazzi at the Los Angeles airport. Last year, rapper
Kanye West was in an altercation with a photographer. West was
cleared of charges last month.
Tyson, 43, won his first championship title at age 20, and his
reputation as a ferocious boxer in the ring earned him the nickname
"Iron Mike" during his heyday in the 1980s.
But he also has had a troubled history. As a boy, he was involved
in criminal gang activity in Brooklyn, New York, and he eventually
went to a school for troubled youth in upstate New York where he
began boxing.
In 1988, as his career soared, he married actress Robin Givens. The
pair fought publicly, Givens claimed he physically hurt her, and
eventually they divorced.
In 1991, Tyson was accused of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss
Black America contestant. He was convicted of sexual assault in
1992 and spent three years in prison.
After he bit off a portion of boxer Evander Holyfield's ear during
a 1997 championship bout, Tyson's career never regained the luster
of his early years and he eventually retired from boxing in
2005.
