THE freak show that has become Mike Tyson’s career lurched farther towards its inevitably inglorious end with the news last night that his bout with Clifford Etienne, billed for Saturday in Memphis, is off. The former world heavyweight champion cited flu and stomach illness as the reasons for pulling out, but — not for the first time in his career — there may be more to the scenario.

Showtime, the American television network, announced the cancellation of the bout and immediately plunged Lennox Lewis’s plans into disarray. The world champion was preparing to meet Tyson for the second time in June, having scored an eighth-round knockout victory last summer, also at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis.

The Briton was hoping to land one last big payday and may even decide to retire should the potential $100 million (about £62.5 million) rematch go out of the window.

Reports had been circulating for a couple of days that all was not well in the Tyson camp and fears heightened after he missed a scheduled flight from Las Vegas to Memphis on Sunday night.

Jeff Fenech, his fitness trainer, had already flown home to Australia, saying that Tyson had missed several days’ work in the past week. Freddie Roach, Tyson’s new trainer, also claimed that his charge was not ready for the fight.

Some say that Tyson has spent the time partying and getting an African tribal tattoo on his face and Roach said earlier yesterday: “If he’s not 100 per cent, he shouldn’t fight, because if he loses to a guy like Etienne, it’s over.”

It would not be the first time that Tyson has gone Awol in the build-up to a bout. For instance, his first meeting with Frank Bruno in the late Eighties, originally scheduled for Wembley Stadium, was repeatedly postponed.

The undercard was due to feature the professional boxing debut of Tonya Harding, the controversial former ice skater whose career ended in 1994 after she was linked to an assault plot to keep Nancy Kerrigan, a rival and fellow American, out of the Olympics. The plot failed, even though Kerrigan was clubbed on a knee. Harding acknowledged hindering the attack investigation.

A rap concert had also been planned as part of the night’s entertainment in Memphis. Some 12,000 tickets had been sold.