Gonzalez Keeps WBC Title Despite Several Low Blows

On the second stripe of his four-stripe trunks, well into the low-blow zone, Domingo Sosa had the word Sosa emblazoned in silk letters.

Chiquita Gonzalez pounded Sosa’s last name with more than a dozen solid punches before 6,834 at the Forum on Monday night. Referee Dave Nelson deducted four points from Gonzalez for the low blows, enough of a deduction to turn a close fight.

This one, however, was never close.

Despite the loss of points, Gonzalez scored a lopsided, 12-round unanimous decision to retain his World Boxing Council mini-flyweight championship.

That Sosa, the WBC’s top-ranked contender in the 108-pound division, did not go down was a surprise. That he did not require medical attention from the barrage of low blows was a miracle.

Gonzalez said the low blows were Sosa’s fault.

“He kept leaning on my neck, pulling me down,” the champion said. “I couldn’t help from hitting him there. They weren’t on purpose.”

Gonzalez said he fought the final six rounds with a badly injured left hand, the same hand that was broken during his last fight on June 3, when he regained the title he had lost late in 1990.

“If my hand didn’t hurt, I would have knocked him out,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez, 25, of Mexico City, improved to 32-1. Sosa, 28, of the Dominican Republic, is 23-1.