Mike Tyson is accused of attempting to grab the breast of his long-time photographer in the early 1980s, but rather than denying the claim, he’s alleging the two had a consensual sexual relationship starting when he was ‘around 17’ and she was in her mid 20s.

Award-winning photographer Lori Grinker, 65, made her accusation in the preface of her new pictorial book, ‘Mike Tyson,’ a candid collection of photographs from Tyson’s teenage years in through the early 1990s.

‘Mike could be very sweet and gentle when he was feeling it, and not very sweet or gentle when he wasn’t,’ she wrote about Tyson, who is now 56. ‘He once tried to grab my breast, and when I pushed him away, he got angry and threw my light meter in the snow. He had a somewhat spoiled side and, being the champ, grew accustomed to getting his way.’

In emails to DailyMail.com, Grinker said Tyson never tried anything like that again and the two continued with their professional relationship. She also stressed that Tyson was just an ‘immature teenager’ at the time.

Tyson’s representatives responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment with a statement: ‘In this day and age it’s unfortunate that Ms. Grinker was not more careful with her words omitting the fact that she was in a sexual relationship with Mike Tyson when he was a minor with almost a decade age difference.’

Grinker has told DailyMail.com that Tyson’s claim is inaccurate.

Grinker’s initial claim: In her new pictorial book, ‘Mike Tyson,’ award-winning photographer Lori Grinker, 65, says the now-56-year-old boxing legend attempted to grab her breast as the two worked together in the early 1980s.

‘He once tried to grab my breast, and when I pushed him away, he got angry and threw my light meter in the snow,’ Grinker wrote.

Response from Tyson reps: When asked for a response to her claims by DailyMail.com, a Tyson spokesperson accused Grinker of having a sexual relationship with Grinker when he was a minor and she was an adult.

‘In this day and age it’s unfortunate that Ms. Grinker was not more careful with her words omitting the fact that she was in a sexual relationship with Mike Tyson when he was a minor with almost a decade age difference,’ read the statement.

The Tyson spokesperson later added: ‘He was around 17 and had sexual relationship (sic) with her on & off until about 21. He had sex with her also when he was champion in Atlantic City.’

Grinker responds to Tyson: In an email to DailyMail.com, Grinker described Tyson’s claim of a sexual relationship as ‘inaccurate’ before going on to make an additional statement.

‘It’s not surprising, though regrettable, that in the guise of what the Daily Mail writer terms is ”integrity” he chose to focus out of context on a brief moment I used to mark a time in Mike’s life as an immature teenager as I documented Mike’s hard-fought, meteoric rise to a settled, thoughtful world champion,’ Grinker wrote.

‘Working a path of salaciousness and merely to gin up controversy, the writer has purportedly prompted a Tyson spokesman to reply inaccurately and with a lie that is, in fact, libelous. My homage to Mike Tyson speaks for itself.’