Streetfighter Taki tangles with Big Apple bicycle louts

AT THe age of 83, the multi-millionaire shipping heir and socialite Taki Theodoracopulos could be forgiven for settling down to a dotage of cocktails and laughter.

But that’s not his style — as he’s just demonstrated after getting involved in a fight with a yob a third his age in New york’s Central Park.

The drama started when Taki, who divides his time between New york, London and Gstaad in the Swiss alps, was walking on one of the park’s paths that are reserved for pedestrians.

‘These two guys in the cycle lane brushed against me, almost hitting me,’ Taki tells me from New york, ‘so I said: “Stay on the bicycle path.” ’

His advice provoked a furious reaction, with one of the riders swivelling round to yell an obscenity, before cycling on.

Other octogenarians might have left it there, but Taki, a karate black belt who has also won the 70+ world judo championship more than once, noticed that the pair had stopped some way ahead of him.

‘They were getting a hot dog or something, so I went up to the guy and said: “Would you like to repeat what you said?” He said: “What the f*** do you want?” ‘They were bigger than me, but I grabbed him by the throat, holding him by the collar. It’s a judo thing — you hold him so he can’t punch.

‘I was very angry, but I was polite. He turned out to be a complete snowflake, as they call them.

‘When I grabbed him, he got scared. He just said: “What are you doing, what are you doing? are you crazy?”’

The second cyclist, perhaps aware that an 82-year-old New york female body builder had recently hospitalised a would-be burglar, decided against interceding.

‘I wasn’t going to punch him,’ adds Taki. ‘I said: “I only told you to get off the pedestrian path. Is there anywhere left for us — the people who walk?”’

Taki successfully fought off three muggers in London’s Chelsea back in 1995.