Olympian Gonzales Stalled by Loss to Leon : Boxing: After failing to make weight, he is beaten in unanimous decision.

The once-promising professional boxing career of Paul Gonzales, launched with a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, looked very much like it had gone dead in the water Monday night.

Fighting with extreme caution and almost entirely lacking in what boxing people like to call “fire in the belly,” Gonzales lost his second fight in 10 weeks when he dropped a unanimous decision to virtually unknown Mexican 18-year-old, Javier Leon.

The heady days of the Olympics, when Gonzales not only won a light-flyweight gold medal, but the outstanding boxer award as well, seemed long, long ago Monday night. On the day he won a gold medal, Gonzales predicted he’d win pro world titles in six weight divisions.

But on Monday night, before 6,080 at the Forum, Gonzales, 26, looked like a very ordinary bantamweight. And an overweight one.

Not so ordinary was a new face on the L.A. boxing scene, super- featherweight Genaro Hernandez, who raised his record to 20-0 with a third-round knockout of Richard Abila. In a third 10-rounder, Phoenix featherweight Louie Espinoza knocked out Fernando Teran, also in the third round.

Six years ago, Gonzales looked as though he had chance to be one of Los Angeles’ great boxing attractions. He had good looks, a marvelous left jab, outstanding boxing skills and he came from the streets of East Los Angeles, a community that has been producing world-class fighters for most of this century.

Gonzales did nothing right Monday. He missed making weight by four pounds, coming in at 122. But Leon didn’t make 118 either, so their bout--a first-rounder in the Forum’s eight-boxer bantamweight tournament--went on.

Gonzales’ new trainer (he split with longtime trainer Al Stankie nearly a year ago), ex-bantamweight champion Albert Davila of Pomona, was livid.

“I don’t know why he didn’t make weight, and I’m very unhappy about it,” Davila said, suggesting he’d have a long talk soon with Gonzales about his boxing future.

Gonzales seemed in shock. What happened to all the cheers of ‘84? He was booed Monday night.

“I can’t explain it,” he said, through bloody lips. “I weighed 119 dried out yesterday, and I woke up this morning at 122. I’ve never failed to make weight before, not even as an amateur. I don’t want to take anything away from the guy (Leon), but he was just a guy. I let a guy with just basic skills beat me.

“Yeah, I’m discouraged. I wanted to win this tournament (and first-place purse of $75,000). But I’m not going to quit. I just wasn’t right tonight. I couldn’t get off (a punch), I couldn’t reach him. These things happen, I guess.”

Gonzales (14-3-1) lost on an eye cut in a bantamweight title fight against Orlando Canizales in El Paso June 10. Leon (31-2-2), from Michoacan, wasn’t supposed to be much of a challenge. But the much shorter, poker-faced fighter beat his more-famed opponent to the punch for 10 rounds, largely ignored Gonzales’ vaunted left jab and scored repeatedly with left hooks inside and long lead rights.

Two judges scored it for Leon, 95-94, and another had it 97-92. The Times card had Leon, 96-93.

Hernandez, managed by Nori Takatani, presumably took another step toward a super-feather championship opportunity. His opponent was to have been Ben Medina, who pulled out of the fight late last week. Saturday night, he fought in a main event in Mexico City.

Abila (15-6), the sub from Las Vegas, wasn’t prepared but also wasn’t in Hernandez’s league. Hernandez, 24, is a tall (5-feet-11), angular fighter. He’s a right-hander but sets up in a squared-off fashion so as to deliver straight rights with the same motion as his effective left jabs.

He’s a patient fighter who likes to throw short, hard uppercuts inside. In the third round Monday, he chased Abila across the ring, pounding him and dumping him on the deck with a jolting left hook. A moment later, Abila was flat on his back under a bottom rope, with his handlers cutting his gloves off.

It was Hernandez’s second fight since recovering from surgery on his left hand last October. Although he has yet to be tested by a world class super-featherweight, he’s ranked second by the World Boxing Assn. and No. 3 by the World Boxing Council.