‘I would have slapped him’ – Lennox Lewis says Mike Tyson was wrong to attack fan harassing him on plane but admits he would have reacted too

Lennox Lewis believes Mike Tyson should have handled things differently with the provocative fan he attacked on a plane last month.

Mobile phone footage showed Iron Mike, 55, leaning over his seat and repeatedly punching a man in the face for persistently harassing the former undisputed heavyweight world champion.

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Tyson would then exit the plane before takeoff while the other man, who sported cuts on his forehead, received medical attention before speaking to the police.

The incident went down on April 20, but on May 10 it was announced that Tyson will face no criminal charges.

Lewis, a man who defeated Tyson back in 2002 and is also a former undisputed heavyweight champion, was asked about the incident while being interviewed by Piers Morgan on TalkTV.

"I think he dealt with it wrong,” Lewis started. 

“Obviously when you poke the bear he's going to react. I just would have turned around, slapped him and said 'no more,’” Lewis said with a chuckle.

Tyson’s team say the man harassing him was drunk and he even threw a water bottle at the boxing legend.

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Representatives for the star said: "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."

The passenger's lawyer reportedly argued that no bottle had been thrown said the incident was simply a case of his client being "overly excited", TMZ reported.