Gonzalez Retains Title With Knockout

Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez had a short and sweet coming-out party at the Forum Monday night.

It almost took longer for the Mexican national anthem to be sung than for Gonzalez to make his third successful defense of the World Boxing Council junior flyweight championship.

He knocked Luis Monzote down twice before stopping the challenger from Miami at 54 seconds of the third round.

Gonzalez could probably work again today, but manager Rafael Mendoza says he will wait until next month.

“We’ll fight anybody,” said Mendoza. “Michael Carbajal keeps saying he wants to fight for the title, but I guess his promoter, Bob Arum, is looking for easier opponents than Gonzalez.”

It was obvious from the start Monday, that Monzote would be no match for the slugger from Mexico City, who is being called a smaller version of Pipino Cuvas, but boxes a lot better.

Monzote won only the fashion contest, choosing a shiny purple and gold ensemble, while Gonzalez stuck with a basic banana yellow.

The challenger also had a couple of interesting corner-people--Harry Kabakoff, returning to Southern California after a long absence; and Silvia Torres, making her local debut.

Monzote tried to utilize his superior foot speed, but never could get out of the way of a left hand in a match-up of southpaws.

They exchanged lefts early in the third round. Monzote’s did little damage. Gonzalez’s put Monzote on the canvas for the count of four.

Monzote soon fell again from a flurry of punches, got up at two and was being battered against the ropes when referee James Jen-Kin stopped the fight.

Gonzalez, 107 3/4, stretched his unbeaten streak to 27 with his 21st knockout.

Monzote, 107, boasted a 21-7 record, but the respected boxing record-keeper Dean Lohuis says he is actually 12-7.

A crowd of 5,566 earlier saw Joe Orewa, 119 3/4, win the International Boxing Council junior featherweight championship with a unanimous 12-round decision over Tommy Valdez, 122.

Orewa, the better boxer, won by margins of six, five and three points.