LOS ANGELES -- Roy Jones Jr. gave previously unbeaten Julio Gonzalez a thorough boxing lesson Saturday night.

	Roy Jones, Jr. successfully defended his WBC, IBF and WBA light heavyweight titles.

Widely regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters around, Jones dominated Gonzalez from the start in retaining his world light heavyweight championship before an announced crowd of 20,409 at Staples Center.

In the days leading up to the bout, the plodding challenger expressed the opinion that Jones had lost some quickness -- probably not a wise thing to do.

If Jones has slowed down, it certainly wasn't evident on this night as the 32-year-old champion from Pensacola, Fla., won a unanimous 12-round decision to retain the WBC, WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles.

Two judges ruled in favor of Jones by scores of 119-106, and the other had it 118-107.

Jones, who never appeared hurt or in any danger, floored Gonzalez twice early in the fight, and again in the final round. But his game opponent survived to the end, albeit barely.

"I gave myself a 10," Jones said of his effort. "He was strong and he had heart. I just had to wear him down.

"My plan was to work the body, wear him down. I had too much respect to go for the quick knockout."

At 6-foot-2, Gonzalez is 3 inches taller than Jones and has a 5-inch reach advantage, but neither made any difference.

"Quick, strong, however you want to put it, he beat me," said Gonzalez, who was born in Mexico but makes his home in Orange County, Calif. "I thought I could hurt him. I pushed him back, I connected with a couple of punches. I didn't hurt him, he hurt me.

"I was a little surprised he didn't try to knock me out. He wasn't going to knock me out."

Jones, 45-1 with 36 knockouts, earned $1.5 million and his company, Square Ring, Inc., also was paid $1.5 million. He weighed 173 pounds -- two below the light heavyweight limit.

Gonzalez, who turns 25 Monday, is 27-1 with 17 knockouts. Gonzales, 174¼, earned $500,000.

Jones dropped Gonzalez with a short left to the jaw midway through the first round that seemed to startle the challenger more than anything else.

Over the next three rounds, Jones used superior quickness to keep his distance from Gonzalez, and just about every punch the aggressive challenger threw seemed to deflect off Jones' gloves up high, or off his elbows a little lower.

Otherwise, Jones landed a punch here and there, although Gonzalez shrugged most of them off.

Jones floored Gonzalez again with a left in the opening seconds of the fifth round -- a punch that obviously hurt the challenger. However, Gonzalez recovered quickly and was the aggressor the last half of the round.

At one point late in the sixth, Jones smiled when Gonzalez landed a glancing blow to his face that obviously did no damage.

Jones clearly hurt Gonzalez near the end of the ninth round, but couldn't put the challenger down again until the 12th, when he did so with a right hand.

Gonzalez was hanging on at the end.

Earlier on the pay-per-view card, in a much more exciting bout, Erik Morales of Mexico retained his WBC featherweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over Injin Chi of South Korea.

There were no knockdowns, but both fighters landed damaging blows throughout, and after the final bell, both raised their arms in triumph.

Morales, who weighed the 126-pound limit, raised his record to 41-0 with 31 knockouts, and his record in title fights to 13-0.

Chi, 125½, is 24-2 with 14 knockouts.

The first title bout was declared a no-contest seven seconds into the second round when WBA welterweight champion Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis of New York sustained cuts over both eyes when he accidentally butted heads with Ricardo Mayorga of Costa Rica.

Lewis is 21-0-1 with 19 knockouts, while Mayorga, 146½, is 22-3-1 with 20 knockouts.