De La Hoya Finds Himself in a Fight, but Makes the Cut : Boxing: He stays unbeaten by stopping Avila in the ninth round.

Oscar De La Hoya was looking to fight someone who wouldn’t get all wobbly kneed merely reading his press clippings.

He was looking for someone with a chin, a brawler who would get hit and keep charging like a bull.

He was looking for someone not so easily impressed by him.

De La Hoya found what he was looking for Saturday in Johnny Avila, who took every thing De La Hoya threw at him, which was plenty.

De La Hoya unleashed an impressive arsenal of punches, survived a seventh-round scare and finally finished off Avila in the ninth round with a technical knockout before 4,242 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

De La Hoya, who improved to 16-0 with 15 knockouts and retained his World Boxing Organization lightweight title, had peppered the right side of Avila’s face from the outset. In the ninth, he opened a cut over Avila’s right eye and the bout was stopped by Dr. Adam Karns at 1:07 of the round.

So who was that guy?

“The ones you don’t hear about, they’re the tough guys,” De La Hoya said afterward of Avila.

Truth was, De La Hoya didn’t really know what to expect from his opponent, which excited him. He didn’t have any film on Avila and only heard he was a tough fighter who could take a punch.

Avila (20-2-1), of Palmdale, lived up to his billing. De La Hoya dominated almost every round, often using Avila’s head as target practice. Two of the three judges gave De La Hoya every round except the eighth, when De La Hoya received a deduction for a low blow.

With a left hook he calls his “45,” De La Hoya raised a welt on the right side of Avila’s face in the first round. By the fifth the welt had swollen to the size of a walnut.

De La Hoya said he knew early it was going to be a long day unless he knocked Avila out or cut him so badly the bout would have to be stopped.

De La Hoya settled for the latter plan, using his reach advantage to work on Avila’s right cheek.

De La Hoya also answered some questions about his ability to take a punch. In the seventh round, by far the bout’s best, Avila landed a right to De La Hoya’s face and backed him into the ropes.

“I hit him and felt it all the way up my arm,” Avila said later. “I knew I hit him good. I wanted to take him out, but he’s real cagey, he really knows how to slip a punch.”

De La Hoya said the punch did not hurt him, and seemed to take offense to the blow as he countered with a massive attack near the end of the round.

“That was a very good right hand,” De La Hoya acknowledged. “But I’m in great shape. I was never out of balance. I took that shot. People thought he hurt me.”

In the eighth, De La Hoya worked Avila with powerful body punches, one so low that he was penalized a point by referee Raul Caiz.

As impressed as he was with the punches De La Hoya threw, Robert Alcazar, the boxer’s trainer, seemed as happy with the one that his fighter took in the seventh.

“I hope that punch answered a few questions,” Alcazar said. “That was a serious punch. But he just took that punch. It must have stunned him, like it would anybody. But I hope that punch answers questions about his chin.”

For De La Hoya, Saturday’s outing was the workout he needed in preparation for his Feb. 18 fight against John John Molina at the MGM Grand. Molina, Alcazar said, is similar in style to Avila.

De La Hoya needed the work. He had disposed of his last three opponents in three, two, and three rounds, respectively. He barely broke a sweat in his Nov. 18 victory against Carl Griffith.

“We’d rather have a fight like (this one),” De La Hoya said. “It means more experience, and more TV time. He was very, very difficult. That’s what happens when a fighter’s not scared out there. He kept coming. That’s the fight I want to be in. My last few fights have only lasted two, three rounds. The public is saying, ‘Wow, I want to see more of you.’ ”

Thanks to the heart and head of Avila, De La Hoya’s public got its wish.

Boxing Notes

In a junior-welterweight bout, Pepe Reilly (11-1, 9 KOs) of Glendale scored a first-round knockout over Antonio Ojeda (6-10, 5 KOs), although Reilly was knocked down once. In a matchup of featherweights, Roberto Garcia of Oxnard survived a cut over his eye to score a technical knockout victory over Roberto Villarreal at 2:09 of the fifth round.