NEW YORK -- New York Yankees pitcher David Wells testified Tuesday he was sucker-punched and "knocked for a loop'' in a late-night fight inside a Manhattan diner in September.

Wells testified about the one-punch fight in the early morning hours of Sept. 7 and said he never touched defendant Rocco Graziosa before he was hit in the jaw.

The 27-year-old Graziosa was charged with misdemeanor counts of assault, menacing and possession of a weapon -- a butter knife he is accused of waving at Wells. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

Wells recounted that Graziosa, who was in the diner with friends, punched him without provocation and then stood there "smiling like he did the best thing in the world.''

Wells described Graziosa as foul-mouthed and insulting and said the defendant punched him after making insensitive remarks about his late mother.

Wells said he was punched as he walked toward the bathroom.

"I turned to his buddies and said, `Enough is enough,''' Wells testified. "And then when I turned, he sucker-punched me. ... I was knocked for a loop.''

Wells, staggered by the blow, fell and gashed his forehead on a diner table, Assistant District Attorney Brian McCarthy said. Wells, who had two teeth knocked out in the fight, spent seven hours at a dentist the next day, the prosecutor said, adding work on the player's teeth was not finished until Monday.

McCarthy asked the 6-foot-4, 250-pound Wells if he ever touched the 5-foot-7, 150-pound Graziosa.

The pitcher responded: "I never touched him at all.''

In opening statements, defense attorney Henry Mazurek said Wells was "stinking drunk'' when he instigated -- and then lost -- the fight.

"Ladies and gentlemen, David Wells was stinking drunk,'' Mazurek said, acknowledging that his client was drinking, too. "You'll hear from David Wells himself that he was intoxicated.''

Wells acknowledged downing at least three tequila shots in a Manhattan nightclub earlier that night.

A security videotape made inside the diner, along with a 911 call from Wells after the fight, will demonstrate the pitcher was incoherent on the night when he lost two teeth, Mazurek told the jury.

On the 911 tape played for the jury, Wells cursed repeatedly at the police operator. When asked by the operator if the diner was located in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens or Manhattan, Wells replied "Yes.''