While talking about Mike Tyson‘s greatest moments inside the ring, very few will remember his bout against Mitch Green in 1986 at Madison Square Garden. However, the fight became immortal when the duo got into an infamous bloody brawl outside of Dapper Dan clothing store in Harlem in 1988, which left Green with a busted face and swollen eye and Tyson with a hairline fracture in his right hand.

The tension started when Green discovered promoter Don King was paying him $30,000 compared to Tyson’s $200,000 for their 1986 bout. While the Augusta native kept his silence at that time, he got an opportunity two years later, on August 23, 1988, when Tyson was shopping for a jacket at Dapper Dan’s in Harlem.

The New York gangster, who considered Harlem his turf, confronted Mike Tyson. Tyson later recalled in his autobiography that he tried to defuse the tension at the time with words. Tyson recounted, exclaiming, “Now, Mitch, you must consider what you are doing. You’ll remember that I already vanquished you when we met in the ring. You need to proceed to the nearest exit immediately,” in a calm yet commanding voice.

However, according to his recollection from the autobiography, those words did not impact ‘Blood’ as he was out for revenge. The Brooklyn native further claimed that he did not start the brawl and was forced to retaliate as Green ripped his shirt off. It was an ugly brawl that the 58-year-old has explained at length in his book ‘Undisputed Truth’. But one thing that he made sure to highlight again and again was that it was Mitch Green who was out for his ‘Blood’ and he was only defending himself since Green had a violent streak and was known for robbing and looting people.

38 years after that infamous street fight, Mitch Green sat down with DJ Vlad and shared his view regarding the scuffle. Furthermore, he termed Mike Tyson’s part of the story as a cover-up to hide what really went down that morning.

Mike Tyson’s cover-up refuted by Mitch Green

The 19-6-1 boxer declared that the story by ‘Iron Mike’ was “a lie”. He explained, “This tried to cover up the little punch he did. I don’t extort nobody, I don’t do nothing to nobody like that. I get along with a lot of people,” claiming that he had no intentions of extorting Mike Tyson. Before a career in boxing, ‘Blood’ was a gang leader with the New York City-based Black Spades.

A few years down the road, Tyson revealed that due to Green’s reputation, he thought that the latter was out there to extort the money he thought he owed Green. That forced Tyson to take a defensive approach from the start. However, the former gang leader cleared the story with Vladimir Lyubovny aka DJ Vlad, claiming that he was not at all like the story made him out to be. “A lot of people, everybody know me, they like me, we get along. I don’t live like that. That’s his way of trying to corrupt me because of the stupid stuff he do,” added Green.

Green then dismissed Mike Tyson’s version of the story and claimed that it was the Brooklyn native who “sucker punched me and ran to the car. That’s his excuse. That’s a good alibi. Yeah, I saw what he said. That lying fag**t,” denying the fact that it was Tyson who initiated the brawl.

Furthermore, Green also made it clear that he had no interest in Tyson’s $850 Dapper Dan jacket because it wouldn’t even fit him. “How I’m going to try to take his coat? I can’t fit his jacket. He’s a little mid**t. I’ma take his coat? For what?” declared an exasperated Mitch Green.

It has been 36 years, yet both of these boxers have maintained their side of the story. While many already find Mike Tyson being the voice of reason hard to believe, this confession by Green has made the story even more intriguing and slightly convoluted. What do you think about Mitch Green’s version of the story? Let us know your thoughts down below.