Justin Bieber -- Training with MIKE TYSON Before Pap Scuffle

In an odd bit of foreshadowing, Justin Bieber hung out with Mike Tyson and got some boxing tips from the legendary fighter just days before his alleged run-in with a paparazzo.

Check out the Biebs working the heavy bag with Tyson. They posed for a pic with another guy, which Tyson tweeted with the caption, "Me, @john and @justinbieber before we started training JB"

As TMZ first reported, Bieber is now a suspect in a criminal battery after Bieber allegedly got into it with a photog in Calabasas. Cops were called to the scene -- Bieber and GF Selena Gomez had already split -- and the photog was transported to a nearby hospital and later released.

Witnesses say the pap incited Bieber and got tips from a lawyer at the scene about calling an ambulance and filing a police report.