Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson finds himself in trouble again after a Los Angeles clash with a photographer at LAX. In an interview with TMZ, Tony Echevarria claims that unprovoked, Tyson attacked him.

Echevarria got a tip that Tyson, traveling with his wife and 10-month-old child, was arriving at LAX from London. Echevarria followed Tyson, who arrived 30 minutes late, from the international terminal as he made his way to Terminal 7. Echevarria said Tyson was cordial and cooperative until he got agitated while looking for a bathroom. That's when the 43-year-old former champ allegedly lost it grabbing Echevarria by his camera bag strap and striking him:

"I found myself in the street and he was hitting me with fists in the head. People came and got him off me. They basically saved my life."

Echevarria said he needed five stitches to close wounds on the back of his head and forehead:

"He was hitting me, there was just blood everywhere. It was like a water valve," Echevarria said he was struck with four punches that he knew of. Airport police spokesman Jim Holcomb said the photographer told police he was struck once. "When the blood is just gushing around you lose count."

Echevarria still appeared to be shaken during his sitdown with the gossip site:

"It's traumatizing. When you're being hit by Mike Tyson, it's really the worst thing in the world that you can imagine. He claimed that I elbowed him. He claimed that I was aggressive. I'm not an aggressive paparazzi."

That's not the story from Tyson's side.

"Mike acted in self defense as a father protecting his child," said Tyson's spokeswoman Tammy Brook.

Holcomb said witnesses on the scene supported both stories.

Echevarria told TMZ that his new $5,000 camera was destroyed and the remains, including the videotape, are now in police possession.