MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- There's still some badness left in Iron Mike after all.
Mike Tyson showed Saturday night he could still punch with
devastating effect, flattening Clifford Etienne just 49 seconds
into the fight with a savage right hand reminiscent of Tyson in his
prime.
Etienne turned out to be easy. Tyson's problems outside the ring
remain a riddle he can't solve.
"I've got issues I've got to deal with," Tyson said. "I'm in
pain and I've got some serious demons I am fighting."
Tyson returned to the only place he knows solace -- a boxing ring
-- to knock Etienne out in a win he desperately needed to keep hope
of future big fights with Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield alive.
Etienne was knocked flat on his back in the middle of the ring
and he lay there as referee Bill Clancy counted him out and a fight
that seemed destined never to happen came to a sudden end.
"I canceled too many fights in my career," Tyson said. "I
wasn't afraid. He needed the money. I always need money."
Tyson then leaned over and helped Etienne to his feet as the
crowd of 15,171 at the Pyramid arena erupted in glee.
"Maybe I'm just a domesticated animal," Tyson said.
Fighting in the same ring where Lewis gave him a beating last
June, Tyson went right after Etienne, who cooperated by standing in
front of him and punching back.
It proved a mistake when Tyson threw a right hand that landed
flush on Etienne's jaw and sent him sprawling to the canvas.
It was the sixth-quickest knockout for Tyson and the 16th in the
first 1:33 of the first round or less. He needed it badly.
"To be honest I'm not ready to fight him (Lewis) at this
time," Tyson said. "I need more fights. I don't want to get beat
up again."
While Etienne was on his back, Tyson was complaining about his.
"I broke my back. I don't even know how I'm standing. It's a
miracle," Tyson said, adding that it was an injury from an old
motorcycle accident. "The doctor took me to the pain center and I
wasn't supposed to fight, but what am I supposed to do? I'm going
to take care of my family."
A doctor later said Tyson's back was a chronic problem, but
nothing that would keep him from fighting.
His problems outside the ring, might, though, just as they
almost ruined this comeback fight.
"I like doing other things," Tyson said in a rambling
post-fight press conference. "I like getting high, hanging out
with my kids, I like drinking. I like doing other things."
Etienne, "The Black Rhino," was picked as an opponent because
he figured to give Tyson an easy target. He didn't disappoint.
"That's what rhinos do. Rhinos don't dance," Tyson said.
More animated before the introductions than usual, Tyson entered
the ring and stood bouncing in front of Etienne before ripping off
the towel over his chest.
When the fight began, Tyson came out slugging, landing a few
punches before Etienne grabbed him and pushed him into the ropes.
The two wrestled and Tyson fell to a knee.
The action resumed and Tyson missed with a left hook before
connecting with the punch that ended the fight.
"I can't say it was an exciting performance. It didn't last too
long," Etienne said. "But it was two warriors in the ring."
Etienne has a tendency to go down -- seven times in one fight
alone -- and was selected as an opponent because of his weak chin and lack of elusiveness.
"This was the way I had to fight him," Etienne said. "How
else could I fight him? I'm OK. He caught me with a good punch."
A circus-like atmosphere enveloped the fight. Tyson, claiming to
be suffering from the flu, canceled the fight on Monday only to
wake up feeling better on Tuesday and deciding to fight.
Things got even weirder when Etienne staged a mini-boycott of
his own before deciding that getting nearly $1 million to fight
Tyson was too lucrative to pass up.
By fight time, though, the absurdity had given way to a
curiosity over how much Tyson had left at the age of 36 after
taking a beating from Lewis in his last fight.
Though the public hasn't lost its fascination with the youngest
fighter to win the heavyweight title 17 years ago, even Tyson
admitted the fight was crucial.
He got $5 million for Etienne, money he needs not only to pay
bills but to pay his ex-wife, Monica, a $6.5 million divorce
settlement.
Tyson's new tattoo was prominent on the left side of his face,
but Etienne never got a chance to hit it. Tyson had earlier called
it a warrior tattoo and he seemed to want to go out and show he was
just that.
Tyson missed a week of training, and was forced to spar both
Wednesday and Thursday to get his timing back -- something unheard
of before a major heavyweight fight. He came into the fight at 225
3/4, while Etienne weighed 222 3/4.
His trainer, Freddie Roach, worried that Tyson would not be in
shape if the fight went into the later rounds. It proved not to be
a concern.
After the fight, Etienne whispered some advice into Tyson's ear.
"I just told Mike to stick to business. Stop screwing around
and fight," Etienne said. "I said if he kept working hard, he
could be champion again."
Tyson was a 4-1 favorite, but in his prime there wouldn't have
even been odds against a fighter who learned to box while serving
10 years in prison and had never been in such a big fight.
Still, Tyson said the fight was too short and he was not ready
to fight Lewis, as both Lewis and Tyson's promoters wanted him to
do on June 21.
"I need more rounds. People are excited to see me knock guys
out because that's how I made my reputation. But I need more
rounds," Tyson said. "After a fight like this, 49 seconds, I
can't go in there against Lewis, a confident fighter who's
accurate. I need to go back to the gym."
Said Roach: "I'd like to see him fight a couple more fights, just to
stay busy. I'd hate to see him take time off and lose the
sharpness that he has."
Tyson, who had never lost a non-title fight, won for the 50th
time in a career that began 18 years ago. It was the 43rd knockout
for Tyson, who has lost four fights and has two no contests.
Etienne, who dropped to 24-2-1, had an altercation with a woman
as he left the ring, and was agitated.
If the fight card needed any more goofiness, it came just before
Tyson and Etienne entered the ring. That's when Tonya Harding made
her pro debut against another novice fighter, Samantha Browning, of
Mantachie, Miss.
The two women spent four rounds flailing at each other in a
comical display before Browning was given a split decision over the
banned former Olympic skater.