ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Brian Minto won over the crowd, but that's not the victory he wanted.

The Butler heavyweight was knocked down twice by Chris Arreola in the fourth round Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall before referee Ed Cotton halted the bout with 20 seconds left in the round.

Minto (34-3) became the 27th of Arreola's 29 opponents to fail to go the distance against the top-ranked world heavyweight contender. The loss cost him a potential world title fight.

Saturday night marked the first time in Minto's professional career that he failed to go the distance. His previous two pro losses were a split decision to Tony Tubbs and a unanimous decision to Luan Krasniqi.

"I don't feel like I disappointed anyone here tonight, except maybe myself," Minto said, holding an ice bag to his blackened left eye.

Minto had been knocked down only twice before — by Vince Maddalone in the first round and Krasniqi in the 12th.

"The guy has a lot of power," Minto said of Arreola. "It was hard getting inside on him and he caught me a few times. But I came here to fight him and that's what I did."

The more Minto got hit, the more determined he seemed to return the favor. He received a spattering of boos from the crowd of 2,927 when he was introduced before the fight, but left the ring to a thunderous ovation.

"I knew he was a tough guy and he wasn't here to play around," Arreola said. "He never hurt me, but he hit me. And each time he got knocked down, he got back up and came right at me.

"No one had ever stopped Brian Minto in a fight before, but I stopped him tonight. That's a statement for me. It shows the ring ability I have.

"I had respect for him (Minto) before the fight. I have even more respect for him now. That's one tough little dude," Arreola added.

The 5-foot-11 Minto weighed in at 218 pounds. The 6-4 Arreola weighed in at 263, the heaviest he's ever been for a fight.

Also battling the flu bug, Arreola (28-1, 25 KOs) insisted he was in shape for the fight.

"A boxer's weight doesn't always reflect how hard he's been training," Arreola said. "When I get home at 9 o' clock at night, I'm hungry, man.

"I was sick tonight. Iwas throwing up in the back after the fight."

Minto was hungry on this night. He landed a solid right hand seconds into the first round and aggressively came at Arreola. He stumbled awkwardly after missing Arreola with a wild right, the California fighter nailing him on the head with a counter-punch.

Round 2 brought numerous exhanges of punches in the middle of the ring. Minto sustained a slight cut above his right eye while Arreola was cut on the bridge of his nose.

Swelling was evident under Minto's eyes in the third round as he took a few punches to get inside on Arreola. Once inside, Minto landed shots to the body and the face.

"Brian was fighting a good, competitive fight," trainer Tom Yankello said. "I thought he clearly won the second round and the third round was close.

"Once he got hurt in the fourth, he handled our strategy as well as at any time in the fight. He just came in too wide (on Arreola) and got caught for that second knockdown."

Minto got hit by a short lefthand early in Round 4 and got bounced into the ropes. Arreola caught him with a right to the back of the head that sent Minto to the canvas with 1:43 left in the round.

Rolling over and getting back to his feet, Minto responded with a flurry of punches, one of which knocked Arreola hard into the ropes and brought the crowd to itsfeet.

"He surprised me there," Arreola admitted. "That wasn't the reaction I expected."

A right-left combination sent Minto to the canvas hard in the final minute of the round. He stayed on his hands and knees for a few seconds, got up and had severe swelling under his left eye, which was quickly blackening.

Another punch knocked Minto into the ropes. As Minto tried to recover, Arreola caught him with two more shots. Cotton stepped between the fighters to end the bout as Minto stood wobbly near a neutral corner.

"I didn't want him to stop it. He never even looked at me," Minto said. "I was OK to keep going. I wanted to extend the fight."

Yankello said the referee never should have allowed those final few punches to happen.

"When the ropes are the only thing holding a guy up, that's a knockdown and an automatc standing 8," Yankello said. "If he (Cotton) steps in there, Brian gets recovery time and he's not hurt as bad.

"If that fight had been allowed to go to a Round 5, you would have seen another 'Rocky' because Brian wasn't gonna quit."

<B>Minto - Punch Stats - Arreola</B>172 - Punches thrown - 20863 - Connected - 9837 - Percentage - 4775 - Jabs thrown - 9018 - Connected - 3124 - Percentage - 3497 - Power punches - 11845 - Connected - 6745 - Percentage - 57