Three Southland Boxers Move Ahead : Olympic trials: Light-heavyweights Williams and Griffin win, as does Pomona’s Mosley. Marquez stops Allen.

Three more Southern California boxers moved into tonight’s semifinals of the U.S. Olympic boxing trials Thursday night, including two light-heavyweights--Jeremy Williams of Long Beach and Montell Griffin of Midway City.

Also advancing was Pomona light-welterweight Shane Mosley, on a hard-earned 5-0 decision over Orlando Hollis of Ft. Hood, Tex.

Williams and Griffin advanced in opposite brackets of the same weight class, but super-heavyweights David Bostice of San Bernardino and Reginald Blackmon of the Navy in San Diego both lost decisions.

Robert Allen, a Marine from Camp Pendleton, lost to trials favorite Raul Marquez of Houston in the tournament’s best bout yet. In a hard-hitting light-middleweight fight that had a Centrum crowd of 3,671 cheering throughout, Marquez knocked Allen down midway through the third and final round and stopped him with 20 seconds left in the bout.

Another heavy favorite, two-time U.S. champion Tim Austin from Cincinnati, cruised to a 5-0 flyweight decision over Arturo Hoffman of Dade City, Fla.

Philadelphia featherweight Ivan Robinson, ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 4 in the world, easily defeated Kenneth Friday of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., 5-0.

The victories by Williams, Griffin and Mosley made it five Southland boxers in the semifinals. They join Oscar De La Hoya and Pepe Reilly, who advanced Wednesday night.

The possibility of an all-Southland final in the light-heavyweight class continued when Williams registered a 5-0 decision over local favorite John Ruiz of Chelsea, Mass., 30 miles away. Griffin was also a 5-0 winner, over Germaine Thedford of Camp LeJeune, N.C.

Williams had a tougher time with several hundred of Ruiz’s fans who chartered buses for the ride from Chelsea than he did with Ruiz. The Ruiz partisans charged to an arena floor tunnel when Williams left after his bout, and several dozen of them cursed and jeered him.

Frightened, Williams ran through the gantlet, fearing flying blunt objects might be next.

Then, in the interview room, he seemed puzzled by the reaction of Ruiz’s partisans. He implied they should have been unhappy with Ruiz, not him.

“The guy really didn’t want to fight, he was holding me in every round,” Williams said. Ruiz drew point deductions for holding violations in the first and third rounds.

Williams’ father/coach, Charles Williams, agreed.

“Those kind of fights scare me, when a guy doesn’t do anything but grab and hold. Strange things have a way of happening in fights like that. When a guy loses a point for holding in the first round, that tells you he doesn’t want to fight.”

Tonight, Williams meets Richard Bonds of Ripley, Tenn., a 3-2 winner over Harry McKee of Cleveland. Griffin faces Terry McGroom of Chicago, who pinned a 5-0 loss on David Rodriguez of Stone Mountain, Ga.

Griffin, shorter than Williams and with more of a brawling style, rocked Thedford in the first round, drawing a standing eight-count by the referee. In the second, he hurt Thedford again with a left hook-right hand combination and drew another standing-eight.

Marquez-Allen was a classic, tense battle between two powerful punchers. Allen was so eager that instead of the prefight handshake, he punched Marquez’s tendered hand.

The rapidly improving Allen rocked the Houston slugger twice in the first round and seemed slightly busier. But Marquez, 20, who beat fabled Cuban Juan Lemus in Tampa in March, turned the tide in the second, when he picked up the pace and had Allen covering up in the final minute.

In the third, Allen was sent into the ropes with a combination, one that drew a standing-eight from referee Nick Cimmento. Allen came apart quickly after that. He was knocked down by by a left hook, and when Marquez landed three more hard punches, Cimmento stopped it.

“It made me a little angry that people were building this guy up to be such a great opponent for me,” Marquez said. “He’s good, but he’s only a national class boxer. I’m world class. I’ve beaten Cubans and Europeans.

“I just had too much experience for him.”

Tonight, in one of the best trials matchups, Mosley faces Vernon Forrest, who captured Cuban Candelario Duvergel’s world championship at the World Championships Challenge matches in Tampa last March. Mosley is a three-time national champion.

Mosley seemed to steadily wear down Hollis. He won a 5-0 decision, but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Hollis, although seeming to tire from the midway point on, countered successfully nearly every time Mosley scored with body punches.

Mosley has a slugger’s physique, but he is actually a complete boxer, with an effective jab and short left hook.

His father/coach, Jack Mosley, wants to see more body punching in the semifinals tonight.

“Shane did well tonight, but I want him to go to the body against Forrest more than he did against Hollis,” he said.

Said Shane Mosley: “I got a little careless early in the bout because I was looking for a bomb to take him out with.” After I settled down and did some basic boxing, I felt I did pretty well.”

Mosley got three 60-56 scores from the judges, one at 60-55 and a 59-58.

The trials will switch to computer scoring for tonight’s semifinals and the weekend finals.

Larry Donald of Cincinnati looked like the class of the super-heavyweights when he defeated Samson Pouha of Kearns, Utah, 5-0.