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It was odd and did look like Ettiene fell as if he were more hurt then he was. His eyes werent dazed at all if I remember correctly. The man was gonna get paid either way and I suppose this was a win that Tyson needed so I guess there was opportunity there. Something definetely was strange and I wouldnt put it past Ettiene or Tysons crew. Both were desperate.
I'd say the fight wasn't staged from Tyson's perspective. But Etienne. The guy has gone on to show he is of low moral character, is it impossible to conceive he took a dive? He waited for a legit punch to happen and sure, he almost ripped his own leg off in the process, but I say he could have gotten up and chose not to. Just like Bruce 'the happiest man to ever get KO'd' Seldon, I don't think it was Tyson who set anything up. If anything, it was Don King promising a couple extra bucks, the highest payday for either guy I'd guess. If one punch takes you out like that, it should take longer for you to recover. I can imagine if a guy is taking punishment over several rounds and is KO'd with an accumulation of blows, but you don't just pop up ready to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
If I'm not mistaken, this was the fight Mike had after he 'broke his back'. Anyone ever figure out what that meant? This was also the fight where I found it disturbing how easily Mike was cut over his eyes. It wasn't even one round and Etienne didn't land anything significant, but Mike was slashed.
Like Tyson really needed the fight to be fixed to beat Etienne
I remember that like yesterday, because I was in Memphis, Tennessee the entire time during the build up..It wasn't staged but here are some factors that lead to the obvious flop by Clifford..
1) Tyson was acting very strange during the promotion, he wanted to cancel then said he wanted to fight, then canceled again because he went out and got a fucking tattoo on his face, then said nevermind okay i'll do it
2)Cliff responded by saying that tyson didn't want to fight and the constant off and on behavior was hurting his preparation so he then backed out.
3) People started saying that he was to earn a million for the fight and he was stupid for backing out..
4)Just days before the fight, ESPN reported that Cliff made phone call back home to his wife during which she some how convinced him to go through with it..Many, including the ESPN anchor speculated that she said something in the area of "Man you'd better not blow the hugest purse of your career are you stupid or something like that"
5)On the night of the fight people in the arena where saying that if they were cliff, because of tyson's antics they'd just go down off the first solid punch, stay down, then take the money..which is exactly what he did....I don't think he was hurt at all, yeah it was a good punch but he immediately got up after the count, even told tyson to stop bullshitting so much....
So, not staged but definitely not a 100% performance..
Tyson did not need a fix for Clifford, but he may well have stayed down for the pay day, but he would not be the first tyson opponent to do that, Seldon was the best example, at least Spinks took the licks.
Etienne was had poor balance and was beyond chinny. Didn't Oquendo knock his @$$ down like 8 times? Etienne was there to be caught anytime of the day.
For a guy like Seldon, he just plain soiled himself. He never got hit that hard and when he was boxing circles and literally spinning away from punches from Joe hipp, he never thought he'd be that vulnerable. He practically fainted when he saw Tyson charging toward him as the bell rang. He got up from that little grazing shot. His legs seemed steady, the ref asked him if he was ok... and was ready to send him back out there...then Seldon realizing he could get hit solid next time, started doing the weak kneed stumble and glazed look to convince the ref to save him.