06-21) 22:30 PDT NEW YORK (AP) --
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was arrested on assault charges early Saturday following a street brawl with two guests outside a Brooklyn hotel, police said.
The boxer was treated for minor cuts to his hands after the other men apparently swung at him with a metal pole taken from the lobby of the hotel where Tyson also was staying, police said.
Tyson, 36, was charged with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in the 5:30 a.m. fight. The two men, Samuel Velez, 31, of Reading, Pa., and Nestor Alvarez, 24, of Philadelphia, both were charged with misdemeanor counts of menacing and harassment, according to the Brooklyn district attorney's office. Velez and Alvarez pleaded not guilty at an early Sunday arraignment.
One of the men and their female companion were treated for minor injuries at a hospital, police said. Tyson was not hospitalized.
A source close to the investigation said the two men started the fight with Tyson, adding that the boxer feared the men would hit him with the pole.
"They did instigate it," the source told The Associated Press. "They were harassing him, saying things to him."
Shelly Finkel, adviser to the Brooklyn-born boxer, did not know any of the details of the confrontation, saying, "I'm in the process of trying to find out."
Tyson was released later Saturday and was due back in court at an unspecified later date, the district attorney's office said.
Tyson walked silently past a small group fans who shouted "Mike! Mike!" as he was led out the precinct in a driving rain.