Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson remains one of the most recognizable and popular men in combat sports despite being retired for some time.

Widely known as ‘The Baddest Man on the Planet’ during his prime, ‘Iron Mike’ became heavyweight champion in 1986 at just 20 years old and skyrocketed to fame across the planet.

However, after suffering an upset loss to James ‘Buster’ Douglas in 1990, Tyson’s career never fully recovered. He did reclaim the heavyweight title in 1995 following a stint in prison but ended up suffering a string of knockout losses before his eventual retirement.

In a truly bizarre story, though, a self-proclaimed “gangster” from Bristol, UK, has claimed that he nearly joined the likes of Douglas, Evander Holyfield, and Lennox Lewis on the list of people to knock Mike Tyson out.

Dean Cooper appeared on the YouTube podcast Hurts So Good and recounted a story of when he supposedly considered knocking ‘Iron Mike’ out with a glass ashtray after a brief confrontation in a pub.

Unsurprisingly, the clip has quickly gone viral across the internet, and a repost of it on Twitter account ‘Didn’t Happen of the Year Awards’ has garnered some comical fan responses.

User @sunday_coach actually seemed to believe Cooper’s story, although he clearly didn’t buy into the gangster’s side of things.

“prob got hit so hard, he hallucinated into thinking he knocked mike out”

@THINGEO, meanwhile, focused on Cooper’s braggadocios nature.

“Then the next day he went to eleveneriffie on holiday”
@steveedwardsz made reference to another self-proclaimed UK gangster, Ronnie Pickering, who went viral for a “road rage” clip a few years ago.

“Ronnie Pickerings cousin”
@iamdetboi, meanwhile, made a subtle comparison between Cooper and the character of Jay Cartwright from the popular UK comedy show The Inbetweeners.

“Mike Tyson? Completed it mate.”
User @McStreety seemed to play along with the story, claiming that Bruce Lee also attended the supposed altercation.

“I can vouch for him, during the same fight Bruce Lee got involved and I karate kicked him out the pub to keep it fair”

@donkevlon, meanwhile, had perhaps the best response. He tagged Tyson’s own Twitter account, clearly attempting to rile up the former champion.
“@MikeTyson this guy just called you a p*ssy. #Fightfightfight”

As of the time of writing, though, Tyson has unsurprisingly not responded.

Mike Tyson: How is ‘Iron Mike’ involved in the upcoming Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou bout?

In just over a week’s time, WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury will face off with former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou in a ten-round boxing match dubbed ‘The Battle of the Baddest’.

The bout will be Ngannou’s first as a professional boxer, and so to prepare for the fight, he’s brought an interesting coach into his camp – former undisputed heavyweight champ Mike Tyson.

Mike Tyson was recently shown pushing Ngannou hard in a training session, and it has been claimed that he agreed to coach ‘The Predator’ four years ago.

One observer who isn’t impressed with this is John Fury, the father of Tyson Fury. He called ‘Iron Mike’ out recently, claiming that he’d be happy to call the former champ a traitor to his face.