Mike Tyson arrested after scuffle at LAX

The 43-year-old boxing icon was arrested after allegedly hitting a paparazzo at LAX who was trailing him from terminal to terminal.

What prompted the fight
Sgt. Jim Holcomb told People that the incident occurred at Terminal 7 about 4:30 p.m. when Tyson was passing through LAX from Europe en route to Las Vegas and a celebrity pap began taking his pictures at the United Airlines terminal.

Tyson's spokeswoman Tammy Brook told the Associated Press that Tyson was traveling with his wife, Lakiha Spicer, and 10-month-old daughter, Milan, Wednesday afternoon when an overly aggressive paparazzo attacked him.

The Radaronline, which first reported the incident, reports that Tyson got angered when the photographer continuously tried to photograph him and his family. The infuriated boxer then punched the pap on his face, knocking him down to the ground.

The paparazzo sustained a cut on his forehead and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

"The two men got into a scuffle, and it's alleged that Tyson hit the photographer once in the face with one hand, causing him to fall to the ground," Holcomb says. "The photographer sustained a laceration to the forehead, and was taken to a local hospital."

Tyson punched in self-defense
Tyson’s rep emphasized that the champ acted in self-defense to protect his child.

"There's a lot of different versions to this story and that's all going to come out later," Holcomb said. "Some witness statements support Tyson's version, others support the photographer's."

Tyson and the unnamed photographer, who were detained after the altercation, both want to press charges for misdemeanor battery against each other, he said.

"Both Mr. Tyson and the other individual are making cross-complaints against each other for misdemeanor battery," Holcomb said

The scuffles at LAX are pretty common as celebrity photographers often stake out at the airport to take pictures of famous personalities, sometimes prompting them to act vigorously in their defense.

"I've heard people were following him into the men's room and trying to take his picture there," Tyson's defense attorney, David Chesnoff, said in a statement to AP yesterday. "My advice to him is going to be to vigorously press charges against what everyone agrees are ridiculously aggressive photographers."

Tyson’s personal life
Tyson, who became the youngest heavyweight champion ever in 1986 when he won his title as a 20-year-old, married for the third time in June this year. He married Lakiha Spicer, 32, on June 6 in Las Vegas. The boxing icon was previously married to Robin Givens for just a year (1988-89) and then to Dr. Monica Turner (from 1997 to 2003).

Before Spicer, Tyson also dated Sol Xochitl, the mother of Tyson’s daughter Exodus Tyson who died in May after accidentally hanging herself on a piece of exercise equipment.

Tragic death of Tyson’s daughter
On May 25, the retired boxer’s daughter, Exodus, was playing on a treadmill when she accidentally got entangled in a cord or rope located under the machine’s console.

Her seven-year-old brother, Miguel, found her choking on the power cable of the exercise equipment. The boy ran to tell his mother, who removed the cord from her neck and called 911. Exodus was then rushed to a local hospital and put on life support, but she could not be saved. She was taken off life support on May 26, a day after the accident.