Perez Gives Martinez a Lesson : Boxing: WBC bantamweight champion gets ninth-round TKO.

Raul Perez took an unbeaten and tenacious challenger to boxing school Monday night and retained his World Boxing Council bantamweight championship with a ninth-round technical knockout.

Perez, at 5 feet 11 the second tallest bantamweight champion ever, bounced short, countering right hands off 5-5 Gerardo Martinez’s head for eight rounds, then ended the fight with his right late in the ninth round of the 12-round bout, before 5,652 at the Forum.

His fifth successful defense of the title gave the Tijuana fighter a 46-1 record, a $50,000 purse and perhaps a down-the-road title fight with another Forum favorite, WBC super-bantamweight champion Paul Banke.

Last week, Perez mockingly described Martinez as “just another short guy” while preparing for the fight. And that’s pretty much how he fought him, patiently picking his spots for quick, jolting right hands over Martinez’s lefts.

Martinez (24-1) earned $15,000.

The challenger, from San Jose, had a rocky first few rounds, during which his shoes weren’t gripping the ring’s mat. He couldn’t plant himself against Perez, who took full advantage of Martinez’s troubles.

Between rounds early in the fight, Martinez’s cornermen shaved strips off the soles of his shoes and his footing seemed to improve. Unfortunately for him, so did Perez’s counter-punching.

The champion’s countering blows slowly took their toll. By the eighth round, because of his inability to block Perez’s rights, he slowed considerably. Martinez’s marks included a bloody mouth and a couple of lumps on the left side of his face.

By the eighth, Martinez’s only hope seemed to be that one of his wild, flailing punches would catch Perez and knock him out.

He was still a dangerous opponent, charging forward continually to throw punches to the head and body. But now, he was tiring just enough so that Perez could see them coming.

Perez began loading up. His opponent was still charging ahead, but he was becoming easier to hit for the mobile, quick-hitting Perez.

Late in the ninth, Perez caught Martinez with a three-punch combination that stopped him in his tracks. Then the finisher. It was a big right hand that caught Martinez flush on the left side of his face. He fell to the canvas.

He arose, and caught a breather when referee Hank Elespuru ordered Perez to return to the neutral corner.

Perez was on his man quickly, finishing him with a solid combination that decked Martinez again. Elespuru stopped the fight, with one second left in the ninth round.

The judges had Perez ahead after eight by margins of 79-74, 77-74 and 77-76. The Times scored every round for Perez except the third, when Elespuru deducted a point from him for a low blow.

The fighters clashed heads often, and one collision, in the fourth, resulted in scalp cut for Martinez. Perez finished unmarked, save for a nick below his left eye.

“I had bad shoes, I had no traction, it made me lose confidence in myself,” Martinez said. “It was the main problem in the fight. I had no leverage.”

Said Perez: “When you lose, you search for excuses.”

He added: “I can still make 118, but I want to move up to 122 and fight Banke, here at the Forum. Of course, that depends on what happens in Korea.”

Banke defends his title on June 9 against Lee Heung-Soon in Seoul.

On the undercard, San Fernando heavyweight Alex Garcia knocked out 6-5, 270-pound Bill Duncan in the first round. Garcia (225) knocked down the inept Duncan twice and it was over at 1:55.

Probably the most exciting fight on the card was the six-rounder between Kenyan Steve Mwema and John Ramirez of Oxnard. In a bloody three-rounder, Mwema scored a TKO at 1:53 of the third.