Mike Tyson will be happy to hear that he won’t be facing any criminal charges for the recent beatdown he served fellow JetBlue passenger Melvin Townsend III, who taunted and provoked the boxing legend during their flight from San Francisco to Florida last month. In the viral clip posted by TMZ, the 55-year-old is eventually seen getting up from his seat and launching a number of hard-hitting blows at the man, with his representative later claiming that the supposed victim had also thrown a water bottle at Mike, which was what ignited him to react after being tormented for several minutes.
The San Mateo County District Attorney announced on Tuesday that prosecutors will not be filing charges against the Hangover star due to Melvin’s conduct during the flight, as seen in the videotapes DA Steve Wagstaffe said he reviewed over the last two weeks. It was ultimately decided that Mike would not be faced with misdemeanor battery because the footage they had seen showed Melvin acting rather irrational. “We now deem the case closed,” Steve said. “The conduct of the victim leading up to the incident, the interaction between Mr. Tyson and the victim, as well as the requests of both the victim and Mr. Tyson” resulted in his decision.
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Melvin has previously been convicted of grand theft, burglary, possession of controlled substances, and fraud, as revealed in the Florida state records, which detail his criminal history. When he and Mike first boarded the plane, Melvin had approached the father-of-six for a selfie, which he happily accepted. But it was soon after Mike had taken his seat when things turned left, and Melvin, who was believed to have been intoxicated at the time, started to misbehave on the flight.
Fellow boxer Tyson Fury appeared in a recent episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, talking about the incident and why he believed that anyone going up against Mike was quite frankly asking for a beatdown. “Mike Tyson is a real O.G., and you can’t mess with Mike because you don’t know what he’s going to do,” he said.
“The fun police will be on Mike to get canceled but how long can you prod a lion with a stick? He’s not the man you want to prod. If he’s man enough to prod Mike Tyson, touch him and abuse him, then man up and take a punch in the face.”
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Mike had previously made headlines last month when he shared his theory on homeless people who are kidnapped and hunted by the wealthy. During an interview with Joe Rogan, he stressed his concerns as the pair smoked marijuana and agreed that less fortunate people in the world are often used by the rich as hunting props.
“This is what happens: they take these homeless people off the streets,” Mike explained. Put ‘em in there, take them to one of those special hospitals. [Then] they take them from the hospital, all drugged up, take ’em to these large estates, property – ‘let’s hunt – Run!”