Mike Tyson knocked out bin man with "titanic right hand" over pigeon dispute

Don’t miss a thing by getting the Daily Star’s biggest headlines straight to your inbox!

Boxing great Mike Tyson once knocked someone out cold over a dispute about a pigeon.

Iron Mike grew up in the mean streets of Brooklyn, New York, where he was embroiled in a life of crime from a young age.

He developed a curious fixation with pigeons in his youth, even collecting them into adulthood.

But the ex-heavyweight monster has revealed he once sparked out someone who disposed of a dead pigeon.

He said: "One morning I woke up and found my favourite pigeon, Julius, had died.

"I was devastated and was going to use his crate as my stickball bat to honour him.

"I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher.

"I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand he was out cold, convulsing on the floor like an infantile retard."

Tyson added that on a different occasion, he threw his first punch over a pigeon.

He said that a thug confronted him when he was aged 10 and killed his pigeon, so he responded by landing a blow.

Tyson continued: "The guy ripped the head off my pigeon. This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon.

"I don't know why, I feel ridiculous just trying to explain it. Pigeons are just so much like people."

Tyson is considered one of the best boxers ever after being crowned heavyweight champion aged just 20.

He knocked out Trevor Berbick in just five minutes and would go on a spree on bone-chilling knockouts.

Short for a heavyweight at 5ft 11ins, he used this to his advantage by getting his body low before landing astonishing punches with venom.

Sadly, it all came crashing down after a shock defeat to Buster Douglas in 1990.

He would then go on to be plagued by controversy, which would in turn affect his performances in the ring.