Light-Flyweight Title Retained by Gonzalez : Boxing: He scores a sluggish 12-round unanimous decision over Cob Castro to earn bout with Carbajal.

It wasn’t pretty or impressive, but Humberto Gonzalez of Mexico City did not complain after retaining his World Boxing Council light-flyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over countryman Melchor Cob Castro at the Forum on Monday night.

From the opening bell, Gonzalez fought methodically to gain the victory he needed to earn a title unification bout with International Boxing Federation champion Michael Carbajal in March.

“I was thinking about my fight with (Carbajal),” Gonzalez said of his sluggish effort. “But fighting against (Cob Castro) was difficult.”

This was the second time Gonzalez has defeated Cob Castro in two years. He decisioned Cob Castro for the WBC title in June of 1991.

Gonzalez, 26, improved to 35-1, but never came close to gaining his 27th knockout.

Both 108-pound left-handers seemed content to keep the bout from becoming a slugfest, seldom exchanging more than three punches at a time in the early rounds.

The fight was even until Gonzalez opened a cut above the right eye of Cob Castro during the eighth round. Gonzalez then won the next three rounds.

During the 11th, Cob Castro began to connect with more punches and came close to knocking the champion down during the 12th.

Gonzalez won on all three of the judges’ cards: 117-112, 117-111 and 115-113.

“I will have to train a lot harder for Carbajal,” Gonzalez said. “That will be a much bigger fight.”

Cob Castro thought that his late rally had turned the fight in his favor.

“You can’t win for losing,” said Cob Castro, whose record dropped to 35-4-4.

In a junior-lightweight bout, Ben Lopez of Upland upset Jorge Ramirez of Huntington Park with a fourth-round knockout.

Lopez surprised Ramirez with hard combinations from the opening bell. However, he almost was knocked out himself during the third, when Ramirez staggered Lopez with a series of left hooks at the end of the round.

During the fourth, however, Lopez gathered himself to deliver a crushing left hook that knocked Ramirez down face first to the canvas. The fight ended 51 seconds into the round.

Lopez, 31, improved to 20-10 with 14 knockouts, while Ramirez dropped to 62-9-3.