Tubbs Wins Fourth in Row on Decision : Boxing: Former WBA heavyweight champion beats Orlin Norris at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Former World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs won his fourth consecutive fight by winning a close, but unanimous, decision over Orlin Norris Tuesday night at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Tubbs, who earned $12,000--compared to the $800,000 he earned against Mike Tyson when he was knocked out five fights ago--won Norris’ North American Boxing Federation heavyweight title.

In another championship fight on the card, Terry Norris, Orlin Norris’ brother, defended his NABF light-middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Tony Montgomery.

In a six-rounder, Olympian Anthony Hembrick, 9-0 as a professional light-heavyweight, decisioned Matthew Brooks. Hembrick was the U.S. middleweight who missed the bus to his first bout at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and was scratched.

The Norris-Montgomery 12-rounder had nearly put some spectators to sleep when the best action of the card happened in the 12th round, after the two fighters traded low blows.

Norris hit Montgomery squarely in the groin with a left hook, doubling up Montgomery. Referee Vince Delgado gave Montgomery more than a minute to recover. Seconds after the fighters resumed, Montgomery hit Norris in the groin with a right hand and Delgado immediately deducted a point from Montgomery’s score, which by that point wasn’t much.

Both fighters raised the fury level, and the wild action over the last 90 seconds brought the crowd to its feet.

The judges had Norris winning easily, the closest score being 117-107.

Hembrick showed a lot of movement--much of it seemingly unnecessary--and a strong, jolting left jab that kept his slower opponent at bay for all six rounds.

The State Athletic Commission had rejected the first three opponents matchmaker Merlin Petit had proposed for Hembrick before settling on Brooks, a left-handed main eventer from Houston who came in with a 9-1 record.

Hembrick, 6-feet-2 and 175 pounds, established boxing superiority at the outset, peppering Brooks with his long left jab and trailing right hands.

There were no knockdowns, but Brooks (179) was in bad trouble in the third, when Hembrick caught him on the ropes and drilled him with an overhand right to the jaw. He didn’t follow up, however, and while Hembrick stood there and watched Brooks wobble on the ropes, referee Ernie Swanke stepped in and gave him an eight-count.

Hembrick seemed bent on finishing Brooks at the outset of the fourth, but Brooks rocked him with a left in close, delivering a message to Hembrick that the fight was not about to end.

The fans started to boo when action slowed in the fifth and sixth rounds, when it was apparent Hembrick couldn’t finish his man. In fact, Brooks got in the last lick just before the final bell. He hit Hembrick with a thumping left hand as the bout ended . . . and sneered defiantly as Hembrick walked to his corner.