PHILADELPHIA (AP) Charles Brewer easily outpointed Fernando Zuniga for the NABF super middleweight title Friday night, and Thomas Tate took the USBA super middleweight title in a dramatic undercard bout.
Brewer (37-8) received winning scores of 117-111 from two judges and 116-112 from the other. Although Brewer landed many punishing blows, Zuniga (21-5) was not knocked down.
In the other title bout, both Tate and Omar Sheika were hurt early.
Tate, who improved to 41-6 with his 20th knockout, hit Shieka (23-3) with a left hook in the first round that caused the area around Sheika's right eye to swell and turn purple. Shieka then came out and knocked Tate down twice in the second round.
In the fourth round, Shieka's left eye also began to bleed and, at the end of the round, doctors ruled that he could not continue.
Shieka and trainer Lou Duva protested to ring doctor Paul Steinberg, with Shieka having to be restrained by his cornermen after cornering Steinberg.
"This isn't 'Rocky.' This is real life," said Steinberg, who examined Shieka's eye after each round.
Duva is protesting the decision to the IBF.
"In the second round, he was out," Shieka said Tate. "What kind of ref is that? He went out of the ring and the ref called that a slip."
Tate, who looked badly hurt in the second and third rounds, fought back in the fourth.
"It was a clear knockdown (in the second round), I'll give you that," Tate said. "But you have to give me credit with some tenacity, conviction and power. It was a dog fight in there."
In the first two bouts of the undercard, Ricardo Williams and Rasheem Brown also recorded victories. In a middleweight bout, Bobby Heath (25-9-5) and Jameel Wilson (10-1-2) fought to a draw.
Williams (5-0-1), a silver medalist in the 2000 Olympics, stopped Joshua Smith (16-5) at 2:22 of the fourth round in their junior welterweight match.
Brown, a middleweight making his pro debut in his hometown, landed a one-punch knockout of Darius Hunter (1-2-1) 1:11 into the first round of the opening bout.
Between bouts, Philadelphia native Bernard Hopkins was honored for his victory over Felix Trinidad last Saturday for the undisputed middleweight title.
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.