Brian Minto gave himself $100 Wednesday night. He earned a lot more.

The Butler heavyweight knocked John Poore down three times in the first round at Pullman Park before the referee mercifully stopped the fight in front of 4,000 hometown fans.

"I took a chance in setting up this show," Minto said. "When we first decided to do this, I realized I could lose some money."

Instead, he walked away with a profit "in the mid-five figures" — plus the $100 fighter's purse he set aside for himself.

"The money's nothing. The exposure is priceless,"Minto said. "I was interviewed on ESPN. I'm a name on American soil again."

Minto's biggest fight to date — a unanimous-decision loss to world-ranked fighter Luan Krasniqi — took place in Germany last year.

The knockout of Poore marked the fourth straight opponent Minto has taken out in the first round since that loss. Only this win was part of ESPN2's live "Wednesday Night at the Fights" telecast.

"The public will demand a big fight for him now,"said Tom Yankello, Minto's trainer. "Not just Western Pennsylvania, but nationally. His time has come.

"He could fill 10,000 seats in (Mellon) Arena in Pittsburgh right now. He could have put 10,000 people in here tonight if they let us use the outfield."

Minto dispatched Poore quickly, landing a straight right to the jaw and flooring him barely a minute into the fight. A flurry of punches sent Poore into the ropes moments later, and the Philadelphia fighter eventually dropped to the canvas again.

"I caught him flush with that first right,"Minto said. "He wasn't going to recover from that. I knew I had him hurt, so I wasn't going to let up."

Another flurry of punches in a corner sent a helpless Poore to the floor for the third time and the fight was halted with 27 seconds left in the round.

There was no three-knockdown rule in the bout.

"He was done anyway,"Minto said.

Minto improved to 31-2 in recording his 20th knockout as a pro. Poore entered the fight with a 20-2 record and 18 knockouts of his own, but had not faced a fighter of Minto's stature.

"I was ready for this fight,"Poore insisted. "But he hit harder than I thought he would.

"My strategy was to use my left jab to keep him outside, but I failed to do that."

Minto wanted to get inside on Poore and succeeded seconds into the fight.

"I studied his previous fights and knew he couldn't fight inside,"Minto said. "The guy had a long reach and I wanted to get underneath it."

"I tried trading punches with him instead of boxing," Poore said. "That was a mistake."

Minto entered the ring to a standing ovation. He admitted the crowd reaction gave him an extra rush of adrenaline.

"But I controlled it," he said. "I just wanted to get in (the ring) and get a feel for it. I fought in front of 15,000 people before in Germany. I remember saying to Tommy (Yankello), 'This is like Rocky.'"

Only he was the villain overseas. He was the hero Wednesday night.

"My status here just went through the roof,"Minto said.

<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE4968073.MOV" width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>ESPN2 commentator Teddy Atlas, a former trainer of world champions, said it's time for Minto to "test the waters" again."There's a place in this game for small heavyweights,"Atlas said. "They just have to use their brains and other attributes a lot more to make up for the lack of size."Brian tested the waters in Germany against a ranked guy ... not an overpowering guy, but did so in a hostile environment and was competitive."You have to find out where you belong in this business. You can't just keep floating along,"Atlas added.He said there are fights out there "that Brian fits into."Joe Mesi (36-0, 27 KOs) of Buffalo, N.Y., and Chris Arreola (24-0) of Los Angeles are suitable opponents for Minto at this stage of his career, Atlas said."'HBOAfter Dark' wouldn't frown at either of those matchups," he said.Regardless, Minto is tired of playing the waiting game."This is where the business of boxing takes over,"Minto said. "Against this guy tonight ... I did what a world-class fighter is supposed to do."Also on Wednesday's card, Butler's Ryan Covert made his pro debut and scored a third-round knockout of Youngstown's Billy Greenawalt (1-4) after getting knocked down seconds into the fight.When the bell sounded to begin the bout, Greenawalt bolted from his corner and dropped Covert with a straight right hand. It was the first punch of the fight."I thought it was done right there, man,"Greenawalt said. "But I gotta give it to the guy. He got up."And put Greenawalt down.

The Youngstown fighter was gasping for breath in his corner after the second round before Covert sent him to the canvas with a number of combinations 44 seconds into Round 3."There's no quit in this dog, baby!"Covert exclaimed after the fight. "This was a test for me tonight. I wanted to prove to myself that I could get back up if I got knocked down."Not only did I get back up, I took the momentum away from him. I'll remember this night for the rest of my life."Butler fighters Jim Emrick and Dave Cook also were on the card (see related story) and previously unbeaten Tom Karpency of Adah, Pa., dropped an eight-round decision to Rayco Saunders of Pittsburgh in an eight-round light-heavyweight bout.Karpency was penalized twice for low blows during the third round.Tom Joseph of Youngstown, Ohio, won a unanimous decision over Clifford Gregory of Farrell in a welterweight bout to begin the show.But the night belonged to Minto."I wrote out a lot of checks over the past couple of days," Minto said. "The overhead costs were nearly $80,000, but I made some money tonight. I made more than with any purse I'd have gotten somewhere else."I brought this to my hometown. Will we do it again? Definitely."