Mike Tyson flattened Clifford Etienne after only 49 seconds of their heavyweight fight in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday, and then staggered champion Lennox Lewis by saying he wants a long wait before they fight again.
Tyson halted the charge of the "Black Rhino" with the sixth-fastest victory of his career, landing a stunning right hand to Etienne's chin that knocked his fellow American flat on his back. Referee Bill Clancy ended it moments later.
"I kept my hands up, looking for the opening and I got it," Tyson said. "I have gotten serious."
Tyson, 36, rose to 50-4 with his 44th early stoppage. Etienne, 32, fell to 24-2 with one draw.
The victory set the stage for a possible rematch against Britain's Lewis, the World Boxing Council champion who stopped Tyson in the eighth round here last June. Talk has already started about another meeting next June.
But after Tyson won, the impressive triumph he needed to spark interest in a rematch with Lewis, the former undisputed world champion said he wanted one or two more tuneups before facing the much-larger Lewis again.
"I'm more confident now than I was last year, but I am not ready to fight Lennox Lewis," Tyson said. "I want more fights. Maybe two, maybe three. I don't know. Right now I'm not interested in getting beat up again."
Lewis, who has not fought since beating Tyson, could invoke a clause from the first contract allowing each man only one fight before a rematch. But Tyson said he needs more work first.
"I'm going back to the gym next week," he said. "I want to get my life together."
A fight that was off and on several times this week wound up being over almost before it began. The rendition of the United States national anthem before the fight lasted 18 seconds longer than Etienne did against Tyson.
The fight had been called off by Tyson's camp last Monday but was reinstated Tuesday with Tyson getting a boost in his five million-dollar payday and Etienne staying for a career-best payday of one million dollars.
"I wasn't ready for this fight. I was obligated," Tyson said. "I have cancelled too many fights in my career. I had to be a man. He needed the money. I always need the money."
Tyson said he had a broken back, having reinjured an old motorcycle injury and being unable to take painkillers due to doping tests. But he showed no sign of pain in pounding Etienne to the canvas.
Tyson turned back the clock and showed the power and ferocious attitude that marked his heyday in the late 1980s.
"This is what I was hoping for," Tyson trainer Freddie Roach said. "Etienne had been knocked down nine times by guys who couldn't punch. I knew if Mike hit him, it wouldn't take long. I was happy with the way Mike fought. I was happy with the way he threw combinations. He can still get better."
Tyson skipped several key pre-fight workouts and had an elaborate Maori tattoo put on the left side of his face, but both Tyson and Roach declared him fit and said the face decoration would not be a factor. They were right.
About 15,000 people attended the conflict of ex-convicts. Etienne spent 10 years in prison for armed robbery. Tyson was jailed three years for rape before a 1995 release and imprisoned for several months in 2001 for assault.
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