Viral footage of Mike Tyson shutting down a reporter during an interview has resurfaced, after he brought up historical charges of rape against the boxing legend on live TV. 

Canadian news anchor Nathan Downer sat down with the former heavyweight champion and his promoter, Alexandre Choko, to promote Tyson's first boxing event in Canada and talk about his experience in the country so far.

The interview begins with Downer asking about Tyson's meeting with the Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who was running for re-election at the time.

After a brief explanation by Alex, Tyson adds: "This is the first time, probably in the history of Toronto, where the mayor is bigger than the whole city, he's a bigger celebrity than anyone in the city, so we wanted to see the mayor. He's a really dynamic character."

The first sign of tension between Tyson and the interviewer then came when he asked whether Tyson had read up on Ford before meeting him.

Tyson replied: "No I didn't read up on him, I watched him on television. He's a big hit in the states."

Downer then immediately fired back, controversially bringing up Tyson's historical rape charges: "Some of your critics would say, you know, this is a race for mayor, we know you're a convicted rapist, this could hurt his [Ford's] campaign. How would you respond to that?"

Here's where things start to get heated.

Tyson responds: "Hey, I don't know who said that, you don't know who said that, you know what I mean? And, I don't have no comment for that, you know, because it's negative, you're being negative.

"I met the mayor, nothing they can do about it."

After a quick rescue by Alexandre, Tyson butts in to say: "So interesting that you come across as a nice guy but you're really a piece of sh*t, with that comment.

"F*ck you, that was a piece of sh*t."

Downer, remembering that they're live on air, quickly says: "You know we're doing live TV."

Tyson replies: "I don't care, what are you going to do about it?"

With Tyson clearly angered by the the line of questioning, Downer tries to move on, asking Mike to talk about his show, which he refuses to do, forcing Alex to once again rescue the interview and promote the event.

Downer asks: "Is it nerve-racking for you to do something like this or is it more nervous for you to box?"

Tyson goes on the offensive again, saying: "It's more nerve-racking talking to a rat piece of sh*t like you.

"You're a piece of sh*t.

"F*ck you."

Downer quickly wraps up the interview before things get any more heated, but as many have pointed, he was lucky to walk out of there without a severe telling off, or worse, from the quick-tempered boxing star.