Carbajal Rallies, Knocks Out Gonzalez : Boxing: He earns second light-flyweight title after being knocked down twice. De La Hoya remains undefeated as lightweight.

Two little men with hearts big enough for any heavyweight staged one of the best fights of the 1990s before 6,521 at the Las Vegas Hilton on Saturday night.

Michael Carbajal, 107 pounds, unified two parts of the world light-flyweight championship with a come-from-behind, seventh-round knockout of Humberto Gonzalez.

“That was the greatest fight I’ve seen since Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler,” promoter Bob Arum said, referring to the classic 1985 middleweight bout.

Oscar De La Hoya, the Montebello lightweight who won a gold medal at last summer’s Olympics, had his most impressive pro outing. He improved to 5-0 with a fourth-round technical knockout of Jeff Mayweather, who slipped to 23-3-2.

“De La Hoya looked so good I thought he’d overshadow the main event, but those two little guys were awesome,” Arum said.

Carbajal, the International Boxing Federation light-flyweight champion from Phoenix, and Gonzalez, the World Boxing Council champion from Mexico City, slugged away at each other at close quarters for virtually every second of a match that ended with one second left in the seventh round, with Gonzalez on his back.

Carbajal (28-0) was down twice, the first time he had been off his feet since he turned pro in 1988. Gonzalez (35-2) was nearly knocked down early in the seventh, but he went down for good when Carbajal landed a lead right and a powerful left hook.

When it was apparent Gonzalez wasn’t getting up, Carbajal began stamping his right foot on the canvas, then he leaped into the air when referee Mills Lane completed the count.

Later, Carbajal walked into the interview room and said:

“Hey, what do you think of that fight? Was that a great fight or what? I think I just won the fight of the year.”

Gonzalez, whose left brow began bleeding badly during the second round, had considerable swelling under the eye at the finish.

“Carbajal hit me with a very good shot,” he said through an interpreter.

“My head was clear. I knew I was winning the fight. I was going to get up. But I just lost the count. Through the fight I kept thinking, ‘I’m winning--I’m beating him.’ But I knew he was a good champion, that he could come back. I was surprised at the punches he took.”

He was right about who was winning the fight. After six rounds, all three judges had Gonzalez ahead by the same score, 58-54. The Times card had Gonzalez by 59-53.

But in the last three rounds, Gonzalez, who had pressed the attack almost all the way, was the first to suffer from the fast pace of the fight.

Carbajal has never had difficulty making the 108-pound limit. But Gonzalez, who was 107 1/2 at Friday’s weigh-in, made several trips to the sauna Thursday and Friday.

He looked like a winner in the second round, when he knocked down Carbajal with a hard right and left.

The two swung away at each other from their heels during the third round, landing more often than missing.

Arum said he had tentatively set up a fight for the undisputed light-flyweight championship in China between Carbajal and South Korean Yuh Myung-Woo, the WBA champion.

De La Hoya showed poise and patience in slowly taking command of his match with the retreating Mayweather.

Mayweather retreated nimbly in a counter-clockwise direction during the first round to avoid De La Hoya’s powerful left hook. But during the second, De La Hoya began throwing long, accurate right hands and Mayweather, not sure now where to run, was at times frozen in his tracks.

By midway through the second, a rout was under way. De La Hoya was hitting him at will with left hooks to the head and body and rights to the head. Only Mayweather’s quick, retreating feet kept him upright.

Referee Mitch Halperin stopped the fight at 1:35 of the fourth. Mayweather only mildly protested. Earlier in the round, De La Hoya knocked Mayweather flat on his back with a right-left combination. Mayweather was up at the count of eight.

“He’s got a great left hook, a decent right hand,” Mayweather said. “He’s got a chance to be a world champion. He’s a little better than I am, that’s for sure.”

De La Hoya next will box Mike Grable on April 6 in Rochester, N.Y. Grable is 13-1.