Mike Tyson's lawyer refusing to pay six-figure sum to man boxing champ punched on JetBlue fight in 2022

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The man former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson fought on a JetBlue flight in April 2022 is demanding financial compensation, which the boxer views as a "shakedown."

A lawyer representing Melvin Townsend sent Tyson’s lawyers a "pre-litigation settlement demand" for "injuries and damages" his client suffered on the flight from San Francisco to Florida. The demand is $450,000, according to The New York Post. 

"As a former undisputed heavyweight champion, the potential to cause severe injuries to another person goes without question," Jake Jondle, Townsend’s lawyer, wrote in the legal letter. 

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Mike Tyson watches the first half of an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Orleans Pelicans, February 27, 2022, in Los Angeles. A woman has accused former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson of raping her sometime in the early 1990s in a lawsuit filed in January 2023, in Albany, New York. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

The letter from the lawyer claims that Townsend had been "excited" to speak with Tyson, as he is a fan. Instead, that chat turned into a brawl, which was filmed by other flyers. 

"There were several other remedies available to Mr. Tyson, but he chose physical violence," Jondle added. The letter also pointed out that Tyson acknowledged being "wrong" in a TV interview with Jimmy Kimmel that addressed the fight. 

"That’s me back in my primitive child stages . . . but I was irritated, tired, high, and pissed off. S--- happens," Tyson said to Kimmel. 

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Jondle said