Charles Oliveira has been walking and playing with a white lion ahead of UFC 280 - but Mike Tyson ke

Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira will look to regain the 155lb title when he takes on Islam Makhachev next weekend.

‘Do Bronx’ lost his lightweight title on the scale when he missed weight ahead of his UFC 274 fight with Justin Gaethje, who he ruthlessly dispatched of inside one round back in May.

After a dominant run through the division's best, Oliveira was understandably granted an immediate shot at the vacant belt, and he’ll take on Khabib Nurmgomedov’s prodigy for it at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi on October 22.

On Wednesday, Oliveira posted pictures and videos on social media showing him walking and playing with a white lion, captioning the post, “Lion walks with lions, who doesn’t like it respect my story.”

This comes mere days after heavyweight contender Manuel Charr was videoed at the compound of Instagram influencer, Humaid Al Buqaish, calling out WBC champion Tyson Fury while walking a white lion.

While some fighters are brave enough to walk with the King of the Jungle, only one boxer is known to have kept several white tigers in his house for more than a decade.

During the height of his fame, Mike Tyson famously had three tigers in his house and kept them with him for more than 10 years between the 1990s and 2000s.

According to the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history, the possibility of having one of the most dangerous animals on the planet live with him didn't occur to him until he was in prison.

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“I had three of them in my house. This is how it happened, I was in prison and I was talking to one of my friends who I bought exotic cars from,” Tyson explained.

“He was saying a friend he knew owed him money. And he said, ‘If he doesn’t pay me any money I’mma take some of these cars and trade them in for some animals.’

"I said, ‘What kind of animals?’ He said, ‘Horses and stuff. Mike they have some nice tigers and lions too. If you got one of those that would be so cool.’

“I said, ‘Yeah that would be true. Why don’t you order me a couple? I’m getting out in a couple of months.’

“So when I got out I came home and I had two cubs.”

Eventually Tyson – the original ‘Tiger King’ – came to the realisation that the animals should not be domesticated and so donated them to a sanctuary after 14 years.

However, that was not before he paid a woman who trespassed on his property $250,000 in compensation after she was involved in an accident with one of his pet tigers.

Tyson claims one of his tigers ‘ripped somebody’s arm off’ when they jumped over his fence and started playing with the wild animals.

The 56-year-old was the subject of a frivolous lawsuit by the woman who committed a crime by entering Tyson’s property before she was attacked, but he gave her $250,000 anyway after seeing the extent of the damage his pet had done.

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