Mosley Is Right With a Left : Boxing: He beats Mexican veteran Hernandez, hopes for bigger payday soon.

Shane Mosley was just following orders.

He heard his father, Jack, who is also his trainer, call for a left hook, and the 23-year-old from Pomona delivered one likely to be heard around the boxing world.

With it, Mosley dropped Raul Hernandez, a reputed tough guy from Mexico City, just before the second-round bell and in front of a crowd estimated at 800 Wednesday night at the Warner Center Marriott.

“I caught him right on the chin,” said Mosley, who ran his record to 17-0 with his 16th knockout. “I knew he wasn’t going to get up. It was right on the money.”

And for the money.

Mosley, ranked sixth among lightweights by the World Boxing Council, would like to fight reigning champion Miguel Angel Gonzalez for the WBC title, and then go after either Rafael Ruelas, the International Boxing Federation champion, or Oscar De La Hoya, the World Boxing Organization titlist.

“I deserve a nice money fight now,” said Mosley, who earned $4,000 for six minutes’ work against Hernandez. “I need to go to the next stage where the pay is a lot bigger.”

Against Hernandez, a veteran of 41 fights, Mosley had the look of a champion.

Using a sharp left jab to keep Hernandez off balance from the start, Mosley took Hernandez down with an overhand right midway through the second round.

“That right wobbled him,” Mosley said, “and I was surprised because he’s supposed to be able to take a punch. I knew I was too strong for him.”

Then he heard his father’s call from the corner.

“I heard him say, ‘Hit him with the left hook,’ ” Mosley said. “I looked and said, yeah, that would be a good shot.

“I listen to him. He’s my eyes and ears outside of the ring.”

The punch caught Hernandez just below the chin and sent him staggering against the ropes before he fell.

In his quickest exit in 28 fights, Hernandez dropped to 19-20-2. However, many of those losses came early in his career. Just last year, Hernandez took David Kamau, the WBC’s top-ranked junior welterweight contender, the distance, losing a split decision.

“This boosts my confidence up to the next level,” Mosley said. “I know this guy is supposed to be a good fighter.”

Mosley’s knockout was the last among five on the six-bout card.

In the semi-main event, Miguel Maikito Martinez, the World Boxing Council’s No. 4-ranked flyweight, improved his record to 30-8-1 by stopping Julio Luna at 57 seconds of the fourth round.

Luna entered the ring by jumping over the ropes, but he had to be helped getting down after Martinez took him to the canvas for the third time in the fight.

Martinez, from Tijuana, knocked down his opponent midway through the first round, then again late in the third before putting Luna on his back by doubling up on a left hook. Luna, from Gomez Palacio, Mexico, is 9-6-1.

In the only fight of the night that went the distance, Carlos Monroe won a unanimous decision over local favorite Jim Mullen in a four-round battle of heavyweights.

Monroe, who formerly played professional basketball in Argentina, ran his record to 4-0, but couldn’t take out Mullen, who hung in gamely.

Outweighed by 26 pounds and dwarfed by his 6-foot-8 opponent, Mullen launched spirited attacks in each round, but never won one.

Mullen, a former kick-boxing champion from Simi Valley, appeared ready to go down several times after a flurry of body punches by Monroe took his legs away in the third round.

Monroe won his other three fights by knockout. Mullen’s record is 6-2-1.

Michael Walsh, a 20-year-old from La Mirada, stopped another local fighter, Marcos (Chino) Esquivel of Van Nuys, at 1:56 of the third round.

Another Jack Mosley-trained boxer, cruiserweight Derek Berry of Pomona, stopped Aljenon DuBose of Oakland in the second round.