Perez Impressive in Fourth Title Defense : Boxing: He earns unanimous decision over Gaby Canizales in WBC bantamweight bout after passing state’s neurological exam on his third try.

Raul Perez defended his World Boxing Council bantamweight championship for the fourth time Monday night, rolling up an almost routine unanimous decision over Gaby Canizales.

Perez, from Tijuana, gave a Forum crowd of 5,979 a brilliant demonstration of offensive and defensive boxing in a 12-round championship bout that almost didn’t happen.

As late as 3:30 p.m. Monday, the Forum boxing staff didn’t know if it would have a main event Monday.

Perez flunked his state-required neurological exam twice Friday, then passed it on his third try Monday afternoon in an exam given by the same neurologist, Richard Gluckman of San Pedro, who had flunked him the first time.

In the end, the skinny, 5-foot-11 Perez was challenged more by California’s controversial neurological exam than by Canizales, who in 1987 had been knocked out by Perez in Tijuana. Canizales, 5-6 1/2, with a reach disadvantage, never penetrated Perez’s defense and while the challenger won the first round, he lost all but a few of the remaining rounds.

Perez (45-1), who earned $50,000, won by margins of 119-109, 117-109 and 116-112 on the judge’s cards. Canizales (45-7), one-time World Boxing Assn. bantamweight champion from Laredo, Tex., made $15,000. The Times card had Perez winning all but two rounds, 118-110.

There were no knockdowns. Perez, expending most of his energy in the final minute of each of the late rounds, scored with two- and three-punch combinations almost at will. Canizales started the last round with his best punch of the fight, a long right that caught Perez on the chin, but that punch, like all the rest of Canizales’ blows, had no effect on the champion.

After the morning weigh-ins Monday, there were charges and counter-charges regarding the exam. Forum boxing officials John Jackson and Tony Curtis were angry about the uncertainty of Perez’s status, and blamed the neurological exam system.

Don Muse, California Athletic Commission assistant executive officer, blamed the late-hour problems on Perez and his manager, Nacho Huizar, for not taking the exam in San Diego weeks ago.

The state requires all boxers to have a yearly exam administered by a commission-designated neurologist. California is the only state requiring such tests of pro boxers.

“We have a commission doctor in San Diego, and he’s 15 miles away from where Perez lives,” Muse said. “Perez’s people knew he had this fight six weeks ago, and they knew he had to take that test before he could box in California in 1990.”

Jackson, Forum vice president for boxing, said he wanted to meet with commission staffers and request a better testing system.

“It’s obvious there are too many problems with the test as it’s given now,” he said. “There are language problems with it and administrative problems. We need a system where if the boxer fails the first neuro, he can be taken to a second neurologist not designated by the commission. The way it is now, you have to take him only to commission doctors.

“If a doctor told you you needed major surgery, would you go for a second opinion to a doctor he told you to see?”

Perez, 22, has had 46 fights. He passed the California exam in 1987, ’88 and ’89. Friday morning, he took the 30-minute version of the test at Gluckman’s office in San Pedro, and failed. He failed again later Friday in Orange, in a three-hour exam administered by Dr. Lino Valdivia.

He went back to Gluckman Monday afternoon, took the 30-minute version again, and passed.

Huizar, Perez’s manager, said the tests are culturally and educationally biased.

“Raul left school after the third grade,” he said. “He can’t read or write. He doesn’t understand some of the questions, even with an interpreter. He was terribly frustrated, terribly angry taking the tests.”

Huizar showed letters signed by two non-commission neurologists who examined Perez over the weekend, giving him non-commission tests. Both doctors’ statements indicated that Perez showed no neurological impairment. The two doctors were Martin Backman of Sherman Oaks and Edmond Rahme of Granada Hills.

“Dr. Valdivia (who flunked Perez Friday) is Peruvian and spoke fluent Spanish, but it was South American Spanish, which is very different from Mexican Spanish, and Raul just didn’t understand him,” Huizar said.

It was a bad night for the commission on another count. Judges called a 10-rounder between junior-middleweights Tomas Perez and Armando Rodriguez a draw in a fight nearly everyone else saw as a clear victory for Rodriguez. Then, about an hour after the boos subsided, someone at ringside observed that one judge’s card, Rudy Jordan’s, added up to 95-94 for Tomas Perez, not 95-95 as announced.

Chuck Hassett called it 94-94 and Dr. James Jen Kin had it 95-94 for Perez.