'TNT' Tucker Overcomes Pain, Armenta, Defends USBO Crown

The moment of truth for Maryland's southpaw, USBO light heavyweight champion Mark "TNT" Tucker, came just between the sixth and seventh rounds on Friday night.

Columbia's George Armenta, the hard-hitting challenger to the Eldersburg resident's 175-pound title, had viciously attacked his head and body over the previous two rounds to draw even in what had become a spirited brawl.

"My hands are hurting," Tucker told former world champion, Buddy McGirt, who was working his corner for the first time, along with Tucker's father, Mark "Spirit Bear" Tucker. "I'm telling you, my hands are killing me."

But McGirt, whose past titlists have included the late Arturo Gatti, had little sympathy for the unbeaten 22-year-old.


"Look, Mark, this is a championship fight. You can't worry about your hands hurting you," "Spirit Bear" Tucker said McGirt told his son. "If you want to be a champion, you are going to have to fight like one. You are going to have to fight through the pain."

From then on, "TNT" Tucker dug in, standing his ground enough to deliver solid right jabs and hooks to the head, followed by similar punches to the body which, at times, held Armenta at bay.

Tucker was awarded a narrow, but unanimous 10-round decision by the scores of 96-94 on the cards of Don Risher and John Gradowski, and 98-92 on that of Gary Camponeschi before a boisterous crowd at Westminster's Shipley Arena at the Carroll County Agricultural Center.

FanHouse scored the fight for Tucker, 96-95.

"I don't know what Buddy told me word-for-word, but it was something like, 'This is a time to show that you're a champ, and you have to dig deep,'" said Tucker, who rose to 13-0 with seven knockouts as the 32-year-old Armenta to slipped to 13-5, with 11 KOs.

"Buddy had yelled at me for something, and I was like, 'I'm trying, but my hands are hurting,'" said Tucker, who stands 6-foot-1. "I had to just dig down and just keep going and not worry about it."

Tucker will next fight for the vacant IBO crown on March 27 against Ronson Frank (13-0, seven KOs) of Rosedale, New York at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

But only because he made a brave stand in the middle of the ring that was the result of a much-needed change in strategy.

"When Mark was going backward, he was leaning into the punches, because George's punches were going wide and he was getting caught," said "Spirit Bear" Tucker. "When he was going forward, he was up more inside of the shots and wasn't getting hit as much."

Armenta was coming off of August's fourth-round knockout of William Johnson -- his ninth stoppage during a 16-match run of 13-3.

"My straight one-twos and my basic punches were working out really good, nothing really fancy. But Armenta was tough, and he kept coming. He was a little wild, and when I was going straight back, he was catching me," said "TNT" Tucker.

"He was bringing it. Our heads clashed a couple of times," said "TNT" Tucker. "He caught me off guard a couple of times, but I came back. I had to sit down and just concentrate on the task at hand and keep on coming."

At times, Armenta was able to trap "TNT" Tucker along the ropes and do damage with bludgeoning blows to the head and body.

"I thought that I hurt him with every clean shot that I hit him with. But he's a tough guy," said Armenta, who was in only his second fight since a September, 2004 unanimous decision loss to Sechew Powell.

"I thought I won the fight. I thought maybe he won three rounds out of seven," said Armenta. "I thought I was more aggressive and that I landed cleaner shots. I had his mouth bleeding and I thought that he was shaking all over the place."

A tough competitor, Armenta's losses include a March 2002 six-round majority decision to current WBA junior middleweight (154 pounds) champion, Yuri Foreman (28-0, eight KOs) of Brooklyn.

"There were maybe a couple of rounds in the middle that went his way when I took a little break, but I knew that I had to come back strong in the later rounds, and I thought that I did that," said Armenta.

"I knew that I would have to do a whole lot to beat him in his hometown, but whatever. My hats off to him, I guess. He won," said Armenta, "I feel that I opened a lot of doors for me because I looked a lot better than a lot of people thought that I would."

"TNT" Tucker earned his fifth-straight win at Shipley Arena, and his sixth overall at the venue, where his following has become enormous.

But now, it is time for a bigger belt and more exposure.

"The past few fights, I've had to learn to adapt and learn to overcome and to be able to change up and do something else if I need to," said "TNT" Tucker.

"Everybody's asking me when I'm going to start being on HBO and pay per view, and I definitely feel like I'm ready to move up," said "TNT" Tucker. "I'm really psyched for that and ready to go. I'm going to get in better shape than I am right now. I'm excited. Maybe we can start going on to bigger and better things and start making some real money."

In another bout, North Carolina's Jamar Freeman (5-0-1) earned a six-round unanimous decision over Baltimore middleweight (160 pounds) Omar Sims (3-1-4, one), against whom Freeman had won a decision and battled to a draw, previously.

In another middleweight bout, 24-year-old Vincent Batteast (1-1-1) scored one knockdown on the way to decisioning 31-year-old Allen "Pit Bull" Perkins (1-1-1) of Frederick.

In a cruiswerweight (200) matchup, Philadelphia's Garrett Wilson (7-2, two) earned a split-decision over New York's Adam Willett (1-1) in a clash of 27-year-olds.