Mike Tyson has seen his tweet go viral after defending the existence of pigeons.
The boxing legend, 55, took to Twitter recently to show his support for his feathered friends.
Iron Mike has famously kept flocks of the birds as pets for most of his life since childhood.
He tweeted: “I don’t understand why people would want to get rid of pigeons. They don’t bother no one.”
The tweet quickly went viral on social media receiving almost 7,000 retweets and 65,000 likes since it was shared on Saturday, with fellow Twitter users left baffled by the post.
Former UFC fighter Jake Shields wrote: “Yeah I feel you Mike and never understood why some people hate on pigeons.”
Luke Ashworth commented: “This is quite possibly the greatest tweet of all time.”
User @CryptoWendyO added: “I will protect you and the pigeons at all costs.”
While a Dutch user commented: “We all read this in his voice, right? Respectfully Mike, respectfully.”
The 55-year-old American also revealed he once broke up with an ex-girlfriend after she cooked and ate one of his pigeons in front of him.
Speaking to the US radio show Boomer and Carton in 2013, Tyson was asked if he had ever eaten one of the birds himself.
To which he replied: “I tried. I tried.
“I was dating this young lady and she said, ‘I don’t know why you’re flying those damn birds, you should be eating them.’
“She happened to grab one and – and she cooked one and proceeded to eat it. And I just couldn’t do it.
“It just wasn’t the right thing to do. That’s why she’s not my woman anymore.
“It was her house and we were living off of her dime, so she could do [it].”
Tyson also once claimed he knocked out a bin man when he was just ten years old after he threw his pet pigeon in the bin.
He added: “One morning I woke up and found my favourite pigeon, Julius, had died. I was devastated and was gonna use his crate as my stickball bat to honour him.
“I left the crate on my stoop and went in to get something and I returned to see the sanitation man put the crate into the crusher.
“I rushed him and caught him flush on the temple with a titanic right hand, he was out cold.”
“The guy ripped the head off my pigeon. This was the first thing I ever loved in my life, the pigeon.
“I don’t know why, I feel ridiculous just trying to explain it. [Pigeons] are just so much like people.”
