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 No Joke – Stewart Batters Chucky T
 by Thomas Gerbasi (March 21, 2003)
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Before a packed house at the Dover Downs Slots in Delaware, local hero Mike “No Joke” Stewart upped his record to 32-1-2 (16 KOs) with a brutal seven round beating of Philly tough guy Chucky T in the 140-pound main event of ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
Billed as a backyard brawl between the two Philadelphia-trained fighters, the level of action rarely dipped throughout the bout, but unfortunately, it was one-sided in favor of Stewart, who used a stiff right hand to punish T repeatedly from beginning to end.
As the bout began, neither fighter wasted anytime in hitting the other. But while T came forward relentlessly behind wide hooks, Stewart countered cleanly, and T’s face reddened almost immediately.
The pattern continued in the second, but soon, Stewart’s ability to be a step ahead of his opponent started to pay dividends, as he jarred T on a number of occasions with right hands. Not surprisingly, T took everything and kept moving forward, rallying strong in the final minute before another right shook him at the bell.
Stewart dominated the third round, mixing up the clean right hands with left hooks to the head and body. Staggering and with his nose bloodied, it was starting to look as if someone would need to save the courageous T from himself, because there was no question that he was going to keep coming and throwing punches.
And keep on coming he did, rebounding slightly in the fourth before getting drilled by Stewart just before the end of the round.
Holding a substantial lead on the scorecards, Stewart switched gears and boxed his foe in round five, but with under a minute left, ‘No Joke’ turned it on again, and had T in deep trouble along the ropes, but the Philadelphian survived again.
The continued head and body assault by Stewart in the sixth looked sufficient enough to end things, but referee Blair Talmadge and T’s corner refused to protect the fighter from serious danger in a fight that it was obvious he couldn’t win.
“I thought they were gonna stop it earlier,” said Stewart. “He was taking a lot of punishment.”
Finally in the seventh, after another sustained barrage by Stewart, Talmadge halted the bout at 1:59. With the win, Stewart grabs the USBA junior welterweight title. Chucky T falls to 22-6-1 with 12 KOs.
In the junior welterweight co-feature, Demetrius Hopkins and Andre Eason clashed in one of those boxing rarities – a matchup between two prospects on the way up. At the end of 10 rounds, Philly’s Hopkins (the nephew of middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins) used two early knockdowns to earn a majority decision over the Brooklynite.
Scores were 96-92, 96-93 and 94-94.
Using his height and reach advantage to maximum effect, the unbeaten Hopkins (12-0-1, 4 KOs) scored flash knockdowns with right hands in rounds one and three, and built a substantial early lead. The aggressive Eason (12-2, 5 KOs) tried to rally in the middle and late rounds of the clinch-filled contest, but Hopkins landed enough clean punches in the sporadic bursts of action to gain an edge on the scorecards.
E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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