Claim: A court heard Mike Tyson allegedly provided $50,000 for a 'hit' on members of a vicious Brooklyn drug gang

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson provided £25,000 for a 'hit' on members of a vicious Brooklyn drug gang who allegedly shot and killed his bodyguard, a court has heard.

But nothing ever came of the contract on the Cash Money Brothers gang, Dwayne 'Thor' Meyers said.

The bizarre claim came during the trial of Abubakr Raheem, 38, an alleged member of the ruthless gang that controlled the Lafayette Gardens Houses in Brooklyn's tough Bedford-Stuyvesant district in New York.

Raheem allegedly drove the getaway car in two turf-war murders, according to prosecutors.

Meyers said the former heavyweight champion put up the money in retaliation for the killing of Darryl 'Homicide' Baum, Tyson's ex-bodyguard and close friend.

He is said to have put bounty on the heads of CMB leaders Damion 'World' Hardy and Edward 'Taz' Cooke.

'Why would Mike Tyson put a hit out on Taz and World?' asked Assistant U.S. Attorney James Loonam.

'He was close friends with Homicide,' replied government witness Meyers, referring to the victim by his nickname.

Just two weeks after the slaying, Tyson dedicated his 38-second knockout fight against Lou Savarese to his 'brother, Darryl Baum'.

'We got word Mike Tyson and had both contributed $50,000 apiece for the murders of Cash Money Brothers,' Meyers told the New York court.

Baum was gunned down just a few months after allegedly firing nine shots at rapper 50 Cent.

The rapper refers to him in the song Many Men.

'Cause he got hit like I got hit but he ain't f**king breathing," 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, rapped.

The Cash Money Brothers gang's name was taken from Wesley Snipes' drug crew in the violent 1991 crime thriller, New Jack City, the court was told.

A spokesperson for Brooklyn-born Tyson, 41, was unavailable for comment.

Raheem denies the charges.