Samuel Velez admits getting the worst of a weekend brawl with Mike Tyson, but he says the ex-champ is the real loser. In an exclusive jailhouse interview, Velez told the Daily News yesterday that Tyson pummeled him for no reason after his friend approached the boxer for an autograph at a Brooklyn hotel "out of love.
" "He's got no guts," said Velez, 22, who is being held at Rikers Island on an outstanding warrant. "I lost all respect for the man.
" Tyson told cops the men harassed him for an autograph and that Velez threatened him by implying he had a gun when Tyson declined their request. The ex-champ said he acted in self-defense in punching Velez and that the other man, Nestor Alvarez-Ramos, tried to attack him with a metal stanchion from the hotel lobby. Velez scoffed at charges that he started the fight and denied police statements that he pretended to reach for a gun. "He could've killed me with those punches," said Velez, of Reading, Pa. "Why would I mess with that man?
" Velez, who is 5-feet-3 and 240 pounds, agreed to speak to a reporter during regular visiting hours at Rikers. Four days after the scrap, he said, his vision is blurred and he has a badly swollen eye, bruised ribs and a banged-up mouth. Velez said he hasn't decided whether to sue Tyson over the fight, which cops said was captured by a hotel video surveillance camera. The admitted Tyson fan said the confrontation started early Saturday, when Alvarez-Ramos spotted the boxer outside the Brooklyn Marriott as the two men and Velez's wife returned from a night of partying. Anger and threats Alvarez-Ramos, 24, asked Tyson for an autograph and was stunned when the quick-tempered fighter exploded in anger and threatened to beat him up, Velez said. "We weren't harassing him," said Velez, who said he regularly subscribes to Tyson bouts on pay-per-view television. "If anything, we're going to approach Mike Tyson out of love, out of respect.
" When a raging Tyson followed Alvarez-Ramos up to the hotel lobby, Velez tried to bundle his friend into an elevator, he said. But before they could get away, the powerful boxer unleashed a flurry of blows, Velez said. Tyson first caught him with a body shot, then pounded his face, he said. "It wasn't one punch," Velez said. "It was: boom, boom, boom.
" Velez and Alvarez-Ramos were charged with harassing and menacing Tyson. Alvarez-Ramos was freed on $2,000 bail. The ex-champ was hit with a misdemeanor assault charge but was freed pending a future court date. "How can they charge me when I didn't even land a shot on the man?
" Velez asked. He admitted having a checkered past but noted that Tyson is no angel, with a rape conviction and a string of violent street fights in his past. "He's been [to prison] upstate. I've been upstate," Velez said. "So how come he's out and I'm still in here?
" He said the brawl and his arrest have hurt him more than physically. "Being in here for Mike Tyson made me miss my son's high school graduation," Velez said. And the notoriety of going a round with Iron Mike doesn't count for much when he's limping around at Rikers, he said. "You know what," Velez said. "I'd give that title back if I could see clearly again.