AYALA KNOWS SCORE AND TAPIA TAKES LOSS.

Byline: Associated Press 

Johnny Tapia tried to pick a fight during the introductions, but after the opening bell, he got all the fight he wanted from Paulie Ayala, who took Tapia's WBA bantamweight title by unanimous decision Saturday night in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Event Center.

Every round was full of slam-bang action that had a crowd of about 6,000 roaring from start to finish. When the decision came, Tapia was faced with the first loss in his 49-bout career.

``I give total respect to Ayala,'' said the 32-year-old Tapia, 46-1-2 with 25 knockouts. ``I thought I won, but I'm not a poor loser. The judges thought Ayala was a better man tonight.''

``He's a great legendary junior bantamweight,'' Ayala said of Tapia, a former WBO and IBF junior bantamweight champion. ``But that doesn't work at bantamweight. I'm the best in the world.''

The crowd had quietly sat through 12 dull rounds as Stevie Johnston scored a clear-cut decision over Aldo Rios of Argentina to retain the WBC lightweight title. But they roared and laughed as the 311-pound Butterbean stopped Peter McNeely, 212, at 2:59 of the first round.

Another new heavyweight champ: Vitali Klitschko of the Ukraine knocked out defending champion Herbie Hide in the second round to win the WBO heavyweight title in London.

The unbeaten Klitschko floored Hide after 34 seconds at the London Arena and delivered a chopping right to knock out the champion at 1 minute, 27 seconds. The former world military heavyweight champion has won all 25 fights as a pro.

Only Riddick Bowe, who floored Hide six times in a March 1995 bout, had beaten Hide before. With 33 fights behind him, the British fighter was strongly favored to hold on to his title, but he was overcome by Klitschko's enormous power.

The Ukrainian weighed in at 245-3/4 pounds, 24 more than the champion. Klitschko was slow to let his big shots go but Hide felt them early in the second round and couldn't survive.

On the comeback trail: Polish heavyweight Andrew Golota used a stiff jab and sharp counter-punching to stop Quinn Navarre in the sixth round, continuing his bid for another world title bout.

Fighting in his homeland for the only the second time as a professional, Golota, 31, improved to 34-3 with a strong performance over the smaller, overmatched Navarre, a 32-year-old American who fell to 21-7-1.