Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has labelled convicted Netflix star Joe Exotic ‘amazing’ and revealed the tigers he owned may well have come from the infamous felon's zoo.

Exotic was the focal point for the series ‘Tiger King’ which followed his journey from owner of GW Zoo to being sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder for hire.

But despite the controversial reception the ex-zoo keeper has received from the documentary, Tyson, who willingly publicised his pet tigers during his boxing career in the 1990s, spoke highly of those in Exotic's line of work.

He said: "People always say these people are scumbags.

“But these are amazing people with what they can do with their ingenious minds and control over other people’s minds. These guys are born leaders.

"It could have been, maybe where I got my cats could have got their cats from Joe. But I don’t know. If you are in the exotic animal world you are aware of him."

Tyson finished his 20-year stint as a boxer in 2005 with a record of 50 victories and six defeats from 56 professional bouts and has since said he regretted keeping tigers as pets during his fighting days.

President Trump was recently asked at his daily coronavirus briefing whether he would consider a pardon for Exotic, to which he replied ‘I'll take a look'.

Tiger King went straight in as the number one most watched show on Netflix when it was released on March 20 and continues to linger in the top 10 more than a month later.

Originally in seven parts, an eighth episode was released on April 12 as an ‘aftershow’ type conclusion to the main docu-series.