Gonzalez Batters Lim, Stops Him in Fifth : Boxing: Mexican fighter improves record to 28-0 and retains WBC light-flyweight championship.

Humberto Gonzalez battered South Korean Lim Jung Keun all over the Forum ring Monday night, stopped him in the fifth round and successfully defended his World Boxing Council light-flyweight championship for the fourth time.

Gonzalez is a bull-shouldered, 5-foot-1 dynamo. He came in at 107 1/4 pounds and showed more sock than some of the heavyweights the Forum has suited up.

In Mexico City, they call him “Chiquita,” or “Little One.” But if he keeps putting away opponents the way he has, he’ll soon be the Forum’s top banana. He’s 28-0 with 22 knockouts (he was 23-0 as an amateur before that), and, more important, added about 1,500 to his Forum turnstile count.

When he beat Luis Monzote in three rounds at the Forum last month, he drew 5,566. Monday, 7,187 came to inspect the little boxer the Forum hopes will one day put the 18,000-plus boxing crowds back in the arena, as Reuben Olivares and Chucho Castillo did two decades ago.

Lim (12-5) came in ranked No. 1 by the WBC and the Korean Boxing Commission, and was in the top 10 in two other world governing bodies’ rankings. He relinquished his Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation championship to take the Gonzalez fight.

He took a bad beating, and, at $10,000, was underpaid. Gonzalez earned $75,000. Lim (107 1/2) is a typical South Korean fighter, a non-stop puncher with an iron jaw. He took a fearsome number of punches from Gonzalez, who knocked Lim down with a four-punch combination late in the fourth round.

Early in the fight, Gonzalez’s stalking game was impressive. But by the third round, after he discovered that the light-hitting Lim couldn’t hurt him, he became a spectacular fighter. He worked with a murderous rhythm and pace, fearlessly unloading bombs from all directions. Now, his great strength and power was fully in play.

At center-ring, he rocked the South Korean repeatedly with stinging left hooks and straight rights. On the ropes, he whacked Lim’s ribs repeatedly.

Gonzalez drove Lim across the ring with five unanswered punches seconds before the bell to end the third, leaving no doubt who was in command.

Gonzalez attacked Lim quickly at the opening bell of the fifth, and the cannonade continued without interruption until referee Rudy Ortega abruptly stopped it 34 seconds into the round. Some whistled in derision, but Lim’s cause at that point was hopeless.

“I was glad he stopped it when he did, because maybe I would have broken a hand on his chin,” Gonzalez said afterward through an interpreter.

The Forum wants their little bombardier back soon, but a line is forming. His promoter, Rafael Mendoza, is being courted for an Aug. 17 bout in Cancun, Mexico, he said, and there is an offer from Sacramento, for a Sept. 10 date.