Socialites, get a load of this! The passenger that was aboard the same flight as Mike Tyson, and seen on video bothering the boxing legend, has an extensive criminal record.
The man, identified as Melvin Townsend III, has had a few encounters with cops. As TMZ reports, Mr. Townsend has been convicted of fraud, grand theft, burglary, possession of controlled substances and trafficking in stolen property. The 36-year-old once broke into a property back in 2018 and allegedly stole a trailer that he hitched to his pickup. As for the drug possession offense, that was reportedly for oxycodone. Official docs don’t mention other specifics, TMZ notes. Now, it was said that he served time in the slammer… twice! One for 20 months and another time for 15 months.
This clearly might help Mike’s case if Townsend decided to take any legal action against the legendary athlete. As we previously reported, Townsend was captured on video where he appeared to be harassing Tyson after they boarded the flight Wednesday from San Francisco to Miami. Before take off, Townsend, who was sitting behind Tyson, was goofing around behind. Mike’s team claims Townsend threw a water bottle at him and that’s what set the legendary boxer off. “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.” The boxing champ loaded a couple of punches on him, leaving him bloodied. Both men got off the plane and were met by cops. At the time, Townsend said he didn’t want to press charges and they both were free to go.
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“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.
Mike Tyson has yet to publicly speak out on the incident but he appeared to be all smiles after his airplane scuffle. Once he arrived in Florida that Thursday, he was seen in great spirits while smoking as he he pulled up to the Eden Roc hotel in Miami. He took photos with fans and preached “basic economics” on his way inside the luxury hotel. The heavyweight star had missed his initial flight Thursday, in which the altercation took place, and instead caught a ride with UFC President Dana White.
White took to Twitter to share a video on his private jet, with Tyson. He captioned his post:
“Hey dummies, for future reference, this is how you stay alive when bumping into @MikeTyson on an airplane,” White wrote in his tweet. The clip showed Tyson slapping White’s shoulder while ordering him to get out of his seat.
“Hey, come on move it,” Tyson said in the video. When White replied, “I like this seat,” Tyson hit back with, “I like it better” — and White immediately gave up his seat.
Hey dummies, for future reference, this is how you stay alive when bumping into @MikeTyson on an airplane. pic.twitter.com/gJFoKOtmkO
— danawhite (@danawhite) April 21, 2022
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