Three Title Fights at Pond Tonight : Boxing: Gonzalez headlines pay-per-view card that is expected to draw 12,000.

After staging only two world title fights in the last 20 years, Orange County is making up for lost time with three championship bouts tonight at The Pond of Anaheim.

The bouts, featuring hard-hitting light-flyweight champion Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez and junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez of Mission Viejo--Hernandez in a nontitle bout--should be considerably better than the last two title fights--the Darren Van Horne-Johnny Jarvis super-middleweight title fight at UC Irvine’s Bren Center in 1989 and the Alfonso Zamora-Thanomjit Sukhutha bantamweight title bout at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1975.

The return of big-time boxing to Orange County is attracting plenty of interest. Forum Boxing, which is promoting the event, is estimating a crowd of 12,000 and a gate of $400,000. The largest crowd to see a Forum boxing match is 10,333, for the Gonzalez-Michael Carbajal fight in 1993.

Gonzalez (41-2, 28 knockouts), the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council champion, is coming off a 12-round majority decision over Carbajal in November. Gonzalez will defend both titles against Jesus Zuniga (23-1-2, 14 knockouts) of Colombia in the last fight.

A victory by Gonzalez could lead to a fight with WBC strawweight champion Ricardo Lopez, the longest reigning champion.

The TVKO pay-per-view card begins at 7 with Puerto Rico’s Daniel Jimenez (19-3-1, 10 knockouts), the World Boxing Organization junior-featherweight champion, defending against Mexico City’s Marco Antonio Barrera (34-0, 24 knockouts).

“I’ve been waiting three years for this opportunity,” said Barrera, 21. “I’m ready and very motivated. I’m going to show the public what it’s all about.”

Next, Hernandez (31-0-1, 15 knockouts), the World Boxing Assn. champion, will face former champion Jorge Paez (50-7-4, 34 knockouts) in a 10-round fight. The WBC would not sanction it as a title fight because Paez is not ranked in the top 10. Paez, 29, didn’t last two rounds against Oscar De La Hoya on July 7.

Hernandez, who hopes to fight De La Hoya soon, said the public will be expecting a quick knockout.

“I don’t like to be compared to Oscar, because he’s afraid to fight me,” Hernandez said. “What Oscar did to Paez, that’s their business.”

The third title on the line will be Alejandro Gonzalez’s WBC featherweight belt. Gonzalez (35-2), who won the championship by stunning undefeated Kevin Kelley Jan. 7, will face Phoenix’s Louie Espinoza (49-8-2).

“They brought me in to fight Kevin Kelley,” said Gonzalez, 21, from Guadalajara. “I came out there and surprised them. They thought I was a pigeon.”

The undercard begins at 6.