Mike Tyson Plane Punch Victim Demands $450K, Boxer’s Lawyer Calls It ‘A Shakedown’

1:28 PM — Melvin Townsend‘s lawyer, Jake Jondle, tells TMZ Sports activities his shopper has been coping with a myriad of accidents because the Mike Tyson assault … together with a concussion, cervical radiculopathy, and impaired imaginative and prescient.

“Not only is the evidence clear that Mr. Tyson committed the intentional torts of assault and battery, but he also acted recklessly and negligently,” Jondle stated in an announcement to us Thursday.

“Additionally, Mr. Tyson admitted on national television to attacking Mr. Townsend and never once claimed a legal justification for his actions, such as self-defense. He admitted he should not have attacked Mr. Townsend. Being irritated by a fan is not a legal defense to any of Mr. Townsend’s claims.”

Jondle added that his letter this week to Alex Spiro was despatched as merely an effort to “engage in good-faith settlement discussions to attempt to resolve this claim prior to filing a lawsuit.”

The person who Mike Tyson pummeled throughout a wild combat on a aircraft final yr is now demanding the boxer pay him practically half 1,000,000 {dollars} to keep away from a future lawsuit over the altercation.

However, the boxing legend’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, is adamant the entire thing is “a shakedown” try … and insists completely no fee might be forthcoming.

A lawyer for Melvin Townsend — the punch sufferer — made the calls for clear in a pre-litigation letter despatched to Spiro earlier this week, in line with the New York Post.

Within the doc, the lawyer — Jake Jondle — stated Tyson may have used different cures to diffuse the scenario on the April 2022 JetBlue flight … however as an alternative “he chose physical violence” and “viciously assaulted” Townsend.

Jondle defined because of the assault, Townsend sustained a “severe headache” in addition to neck ache … and “is still suffering with the effects of the assault to this day.”

Jondle wrote within the doc that $450,000 from Tyson would assist Townsend cowl his authorized payments … in addition to any future therapy Townsend would require.

In response to Spiro, nonetheless, no such examine might be written.

“I have received a shakedown letter related to some instigator’s harassment of Mike a year ago and the aftermath,” Spiro stated in an announcement. “There will be no shakedown payment.”

Reps for Tyson had beforehand advised TMZ Sports activities your complete incident occurred as a result of Townsend threw a water bottle on the former pugilist and aggravated him repeatedly. Tyson himself later stated on his “Hotboxin” podcast that Townsend “was f***ing with me” previous to the incident.

For Townsend’s half, Jondle stated in his letter this week his shopper was merely “excited to see [Tyson] on the flight, began discussing the marijuana industry and psychedelic mushrooms with him, and Mr. Tyson became annoyed” and attacked.

Tyson’s been within the clear criminally, in the meantime, for over a yr … as prosecutors declined to file charges in opposition to the ex-fighter in Might 2022.