LOS ANGELES - FORMER world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, police confirmed on Wednesday after he was reported to have punched a photographer.

Police said the troubled 43-year-old had been detained following an altercation at the airport's terminal seven.

No further information was immediately available. The Los Angeles Times reported on its website that the boxer who once styled himself 'the baddest man on the planet' was held after an 'altercation'.

Local broadcast reports said Tyson had struck a paparazzi photographer.

The incident comes after a difficult year for Tyson, who suffered personal tragedy in May when his four-year-old daughter died after accidentally strangling herself with a loose cord on a treadmill.

Tyson exploded on the boxing scene in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in history in 1986 at the age of 20. -- AFP