Carlos Gonzalez Gets Quick Win : Boxing: He stops Jimmy Paul in the second round of junior-lightweight fight at the Forum.

Hard-hitting Carlos Gonzalez of Mexico added to his growing reputation as an early finisher Monday night by stopping former lightweight champion Jimmy Paul in the second round to win the vacant World Boxing Organization junior-lightweight title.

Before a crowd of 6,125 at the Forum, Gonzalez rallied after a slow first round by pounding Paul into the ropes before referee Lou Moret stopped the fight 2:12 into the round to remain undefeated. Paul, who was fighting his seventh bout after a three-year layoff, dropped to 32-5.

Gonzalez, 20, is 32-0 with 30 knockouts, including 23 within three rounds.

“I worked very hard for this,” said Gonzalez, who was scheduled to fight undefeated Oba Carr until Carr pulled out three weeks ago. “I turned the fight around when I started landing some punches.”

Paul, who is managed by Emanuel Steward and is a member of Detroit’s Kronk gym, won the first round behind solid jabs and follow-up right hands but ran into trouble in the second.

The former International Boxing Federation champion got caught early in the round by a left uppercut, which brought the pro-Gonzalez crowd to its feet, and then was swarmed by hard uppercuts and hooks until the fight was stopped.

“I knew my punches were landing good when his legs got a little wobbly,” said Gonzalez, who has gone the distance only twice in his career.

Stewart said he was surprised by Paul’s performance and said his boxer simply could not get going in the second round.

“He wasn’t hurt by one punch,” Steward said. “He just let the man throw too many punches without a return.”

For Paul, 32, the loss is a major setback for his comeback into the ring. He had gained attention with a string of impressive victories after his layoff, including a technical knockout over 1988 Olympian Todd Foster last February. But, he was overmatched against Gonzalez.

Ysaias Zamudio of Blythe tuned up for his expected showdown with World Boxing Council flyweight champion Muangchi Kittikasem with an impressive second-round technical knockout over Hector Diaz of Mexico.

Zamudio, a Forum regular ranked No. 1 by the WBC, dominated from the opening bell with sharp uppercuts and right hooks. He knocked Diaz down twice in the first round before having the fight stopped 58 seconds into the second round.

“I figured that I could get into him if I sharpened my punches instead of just swinging them,” said Zamudio, who improved to 29-3-1 with nine knockouts. “I knew uppercuts would drain him because I had been training real hard with that.”

In a super-lightweight fight, David Ojeda of Los Angeles stopped Roberto Garcia of Los Angeles in the fifth round; and in a junior-middleweight bout, Hector Monjardin of Paramount knocked out Larry Loy of Van Nuys in the third round.