Nicholson Stopped In Seventh In Philadelphia!

In a tough and, at times, confusing contest at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA, Laurel, MD super middleweight Demond "D'Best At It" Nicholson lost by seventh-round TKO to Jesse "Hollywood" Hart of Philadelphia in front of a nationally-televised audience on ESPN.   With the victory, Hart captured the vacant NABF Super Middleweight title.

Hart had an early advantage as he tried to use his three-inch height advantage to try to pick Nicholson off in the first round.  However, Nicholson managed to hurt Hart with a right hand right before the bell.

The majority of the confusion came from the referee in the contest, Shawn Clark, who was absolutely atrocious in this bout.  In the third round, Nicholson seemed to trip on Hart's foot and fell onto the canvas.  Hart threw a sweeping right hook during the tangle but missed.  However, Clark still called a knockdown against Nicholson.  Later in the third, Hart landed a series of punches that legitimately dropped Nicholson to the canvas.

Nicholson held his own during the middle portion of the fight as he landed uppercuts and some body shots but in the seventh round, Hart swarmed Nicholson with hard punches and sent him to a squatting position on the canvas.  Nicholson's gloves touched the canvas right in front of Clark, who somehow, totally missed that and did not rule a knockdown.  Hart continued his onslaught in the round dropping Nicholson again.  Clark called that a knockdown and gave an eight-count.  At the end of eight, he asked Nicholson to get up.  Nicholson stayed down but Hart did not continue his count., giving Nicholson a few extra seconds to recover.  When Nicholson did get up, Clark waived off the bout.  The bout was stopped at 2:26 of the seventh round.

The loss drops Nicholson's record to 18-3-1, 17 KO's.  Hart's record rises to 24-1, 20 KO's.