Morton Hardly the Greatest in Knockout Loss to Butler : Boxing: Heavyweight from Los Angeles pummels his beleaguered and overmatched opponent from the start, winning in fifth round.

John Morton and Muhammad Ali have a lot in common.

Both were born and raised in Louisville, Ky.

Both chose boxing as a profession.

OK. So Morton and Ali have two things in common.

Wednesday night at the Country Club in Reseda, Morton (10-22) lost his 10th consecutive heavyweight bout, falling with a thud in the fifth round under a heavy-handed assault by Lionel Butler of Los Angeles in a scheduled 10-round fight.

It was Butler’s eighth consecutive knockout in a revived career that began with a bang in 1989. The bang was usually caused by Butler hitting the canvas. His win brought his record to 14-10-1. Butler, now fighting for the Ten Goose Boxing Club in Van Nuys, was coming off an Aug. 18 first-round knockout of former heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs, a once-formidable fighter whose skills had faded.

The beating began soon after the opening bell with Butler landing crushing lefts and rights to the head and soft body of Morton, 244. The pattern continued in the second and third rounds, interrupted only by Morton’s fleeing across the ring whenever possible in an effort to escape Butler’s thudding blows.

In the fourth, Butler landed a 10-punch combination that dropped Morton hard against the ropes. Two more punches as Morton kneeled on the canvas brought a warning to Butler from referee James Jen-Kin.

In the fifth, Butler unloaded against an exhausted Morton and dropped him again with a quick series of uppercuts. Morton got to one knee at the count of five and simply stayed in that position as Jen-Kin counted him out at 2 minutes 43 seconds.

Butler weighed 241, 15 pounds more than he weighed in August against Tubbs.

“Against guys like this, you never know what to expect,” Butler said.

“This guy had no style at all. I had to be extra careful against him. When I fought Tubbs, I knew his style and I used it to knock him out. This guy, I knew nothing about him, so it took me a little longer.”

In an earlier bout, Chris Sande of Kenya, now living in North Hollywood, won an easy eight-round decision over Otis Pimpleton of Palmdale in a middleweight bout. Sande (15-3) was a bronze medalist in the 1988 Olympics. Pimpleton is 5-6-2.