By Lem Satterfield

ATLANTIC CITY -- WBC featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez of Mexico City scored his ninth straight knockout with a left hook to the body followed by a right to the head that dropped a bloody Tomas Villa of Chihuahua and led to referee Eddie Cotton stepping in to wave an end to their match up at 49 seconds of the fourth round.

Villa (23-8-4, 14 knockouts) rose from the canvas holding his stomach, wandered to a position along the ropes, and then spit out his moutpiece as well as a lot of blood, an indication that he no longer wanted to continue.

Gonzales improved to 49-7 with his 43nd knockout, the previous one being in the fourth round of an April bout in Japan that dethroned Houzumi Hasegawa.

"Elio Rojas is in the audience, and I understand Yuriorkis Gamboa has taken another fight, but fighting the other champions, that is what we want to do," said promoter Dan Goossen of Gonzalez. "We hope to get him back into the ring in September."

Gonzalez-Villa took place on the undercard of a junior middleweight main event featuring a clash of southpaws between Paul Williams (39-2, 27 KOs) and Erislandy Lara (15-0-1, 10 KOs).

Tags: Jhonny Gonzalez