Mike Tyson has supported Donald Trump across all three of his presidential campaigns, but the two New Yorkers have not always gotten along.

Tyson – who returned to the ring last year, losing a unanimous decision to YouTuber Jake Paul in a bout broadcast on Netflix – has a long history with Trump owing to the businessman’s involvement and interest in boxing in the 1980s.

The former world heavyweight champion spoke firmly in favour of Trump in the lead up to the 2020 US election.

“I’m voting for Trump,” he snapped. “So what’s somebody going to do about it?

Jake Paul lands a punch on Mike Tyson during their fight. Image: Getty

“I like Donald Trump and I’m gonna vote for him. So what?

“What are you gonna do? Shoot me? Beat me up?”

And in an interview with The Daily Caller ahead of the 2016 election, Tyson said of Trump: “When I see him, he shakes my hand and respects my family. None of them – Barack [Obama], whoever – nobody else does that. They’re gonna be who they are and disregard me, my family.

“So I’m voting for him. If I can get 200,000 people or more to vote for him, I’m gonna do it.

“We’re really good friends. We go back to ’86, ’87. Most of my successful and best fights were at Trump’s hotels. He didn’t manage me, though. He was just helping me with my court case.”

But according to a story recounted by author Tim O’Brien in his book TrumpNation, Tyson almost came to blows with the former star of The Apprentice when he suspected Trump was having an affair with his wife in the late 1990s.

The book quotes Trump saying: “He said, ‘Could I ask you, are you f***ing my wife?’

“Now, if I froze, I’m dead… You would have zero chance. Here’s the heavyweight champion of the world, and he’s a solid piece of f***ing armour.”

In how own autobiography, Tyson described the punch he swung at Trump upon storming into his New York office that day as “the best punch I’ve ever thrown in my entire life”.