A guy seeking £350,000 in compensation says he was "viciously assaulted" by Mike Tyson on a commercial flight. On a JetBlue aircraft from San Francisco in April, the former world heavyweight boxing champion was seen on camera striking passenger Melvin Townsend repeatedly. Video captured on a cell phone seemed to show Tyson,57, bending over the back of his seat and striking the passenger repeatedly while another man utters the following:

 "Hey Mike, Mike, let's stop that, c'mon." At the time, a Tyson agent said that the passenger had been combative. "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," stated the representative for Tyson. According to The Sun, Mr. Townsend's attorneys are now requesting £350,000 in damages after he had significant medical expenses.

His attorneys assert that he had a concussion, a head contusion, and discomfort in his head and neck as a result of the incident.

"If we are unable to reach an agreement, we will continue to prepare Mr. Townsend's case for the filing of a lawsuit," said a letter to Tyson's lawyers. It goes on: "A detailed account of the incidents at hand is unnecessary because there is a lot of footage online showing Mr. Tyson striking Mr. Townsend repeatedly. To put it briefly, our stance is that Mr. Townsend grew irritated with Mr. Tyson when he started talking about the marijuana business and psychoactive mushrooms with your client on the flight.

"Mr. Tyson then reached over the seat, grabbed Mr. Townsend by the shirt collar, and proceeded to repeatedly punch him in the head." "There will be no shakedown payment," said Alex Spiro, Tyson's attorney, in response to the settlement request. "I have received a shakedown letter related to some instigator's harassment of Mike a year ago and the aftermath."