Carbajal, Gonzalez to Put Up Titles : Boxing: They will unify IBF, WBC light-flyweight crowns tonight. De La Hoya will try to remain unbeaten.

Having talked about it for three years, Michael Carbajal and Humberto Gonzalez are actually going to fight tonight.

The two most prominent men in boxing’s second-lightest weight class, light-flyweight (108 pounds), Carbajal and Gonzalez will unify the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council championships. Carbajal holds the IBF’s title, Gonzalez the WBC’s.

They will fight a pay-per-view 12-rounder at the Las Vegas Hilton. On the same card, Olympic champion Oscar De La Hoya will try to improve his pro record to 5-0 when he fights Jeff Mayweather (23-2-2) in an eight-rounder.

The careers of Carbajal, 107 pounds, and Gonzalez, 107, have run parallel.

Gonzalez, 26, from Mexico City, has stopped 26 of his 36 opponents. At 5 feet 1, he charges foes like a 108-pound version of Mike Tyson.

He turned pro at a young age and already had a 21-0 record when Carbajal, from Phoenix, was winning a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics.

Gonzalez won his light-flyweight title in 1989, when he beat Lee Yul-Woo on a decision in South Korea. He is 11-1 in championship fights and at one point had knocked out 16 consecutive opponents.

Carbajal won his title by beating Maungchai Kittikasem of Thailand in Phoenix in 1990. He has defended seven times.

Carbajal’s game is down-the-middle punches and solid overall boxing skills. Gonzalez is a slugger, who throws mostly hooks, roundhouse rights and uppercuts at close quarters.

Gonzalez’s aura of invincibility was punctured, however, on Dec. 19, 1990, when he was knocked out by Filipino Rolando Pascua.

That put Carbajal-Gonzalez on indefinite hold.

Six months later, Gonzalez had his title back. He beat Melchor Cob Castro on a decision here after Castro had beaten Pascua. Gonzalez has since won six in a row.

Both Carbajal and Gonzalez have fought Javier Varguez. Carbajal won a close decision over Varguez in 1991, and Gonzalez stopped him in five rounds in 1988.

Carbajal is rated No. 1 among the world’s light-flyweights, Gonzalez No. 3. Second is South Korean Yuh Myung-Woo, who holds the World Boxing Assn. title. For tonight’s winner, another big payday awaits for another unification fight.

Carbajal will earn $300,000 tonight. Contracts submitted to the Nevada Athletic Commission show Gonzalez earning a purse of $100,000, but promoter Bob Arum said that $50,000 is being paid directly to Gonzalez’s co-managers, Justo and Francisco Sanchez, and another $150,000 is going to the Mexican company that holds the TV rights to Gonzalez’s fights.

De La Hoya, in his first eight-rounder, will fight an opponent who has knocked out only six of 27 opponents.

Mayweather is by far the most experienced of De La Hoya’s pro opponents, but he is winless in his last two. He was stopped by Todd Foster last summer and had a draw with Jorge Romero on Dec. 26.

If De La Hoya dominates Mayweather as he has his first four foes, Arum has indicated that he will get the Montebello fighter a title fight before the end of the year.

Also tonight, Jorge Paez (42-5-4) of Mexicali will fight Ramon Felix (20-4) of Tijuana in a lightweight bout and Cuban heavyweight Jorge Gonzalez (13-0) will box Mike White (26-12-1).