BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : Gabe Ruelas Accepts Loss, Looks to Future

In the aftermath of the Feb. 20 Mexico City fight card, witnessed by 130,000 in Azteca Stadium, the Geese are still honking, despite Gabe Ruelas’ setback in his title match with Azumah Nelson.

Dan Goossen and his Ten Goose Boxing stable in Van Nuys are already seeking another championship match for Ruelas and one for his brother, Rafael, as well. And, despite foot-dragging by promoter Don King, the Goossens are still hoping to match Terry Norris against Julio Cesar Chavez.

Gabe Ruelas lost a majority decision when he tried to win Nelson’s 130-pound world championship last week, and derided the outcome afterward. Days later, however, he had accepted the loss and was eagerly looking ahead to another challenge.

“In my heart, I feel I won the fight, but I also feel it could have gone either way,” he said.

“I proved a lot to myself and everyone else, that I belonged in there with a guy who’s been a champion for many years.”

Ruelas, 22, was boxing a 34-year-old champion who had lost only one fight--to Pernell Whitaker--since 1982. Many at ringside kept waiting for the Ghanan to wear down in the fast-paced match, but it never happened.

In fact, Nelson sewed it up by winning the last two rounds on nearly everyone’s cards.

“I’ve looked at the video, and while it looks like he hit me really hard several times, he never hurt me,” Ruelas said. “And I guess I never hurt him, either.”

Ruelas and Goossen, his manager/promoter, claim the Mexican referee, Lupe Garcia, favored Nelson.

“At one point, when I complained about a head butt, he said to me: ‘Shut up and throw more punches,’ ” Ruelas said. “What’s he telling me that for? He’s not my trainer. He also told me a couple of times to be busier, that I was resting too much.”

Goossen said he had filed a protest against Garcia to the World Boxing Council in Mexico City, and asked that Ruelas be retained as the WBC’s No. 1 contender.

“The referee constantly talked to Gabe in Spanish, never to Nelson,” Goossen said. “It seemed to us as if he was diverting Gabe’s attention for much of the fight.”

Meanwhile, Goossen has begun work on a hoped-for double Ruelas title fight.

He wants to promote an outdoor show between Gabe Ruelas and WBA junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez of Mission Viejo, and Rafael Ruelas and Miguel Angel Gonzalez of Mexico City, for Gonzalez’s WBC lightweight championship.

Another option for Rafael Ruelas is Sacramento’s Tony Lopez, the WBA lightweight champion.

Also, it seems Goossen’s hopes for a Mexican Independence Day (Sept. 16) bout between Norris and Chavez might be threatened by Chavez’s promoter, King.

Joe Sayatovich, manager of Norris, the WBC junior-middleweight champion, had previously challenged Chavez to a match at 147 pounds, $10 million for each. Chavez agreed.

But when the challenge was made anew after the Mexico City fights, after Chavez had easily defeated Greg Haugen and Norris had knocked out Maurice Blocker, King balked.

King has a problem with his middleweight, Julian Jackson, who knocked out Norris in 1989. For that fight, Jackson earned a purse of $100,000. To this day, that’s the most he has ever earned for a fight, and he isn’t happy about it--particularly because Norris has earned more than $1 million several times.

Predictably, King said Norris must fight Jackson again--”to take care of that blemish on his record”--before he can face Chavez.

King might have another problem with a Norris-Chavez match. If Chavez lost, it would mean the loss of King’s only meal ticket. His other one, Mike Tyson, is in prison. It could well be that King isn’t going to risk a Chavez defeat, not even for $10 million.

Said Sayatovich: “Once Julio understands that he can’t make $10 million with anyone else out there, we feel he’ll tell King to get Norris for him.

“But we’re not going to wait forever. Terry can move up to middleweight and make $5 million to $8 million per fight. Without Terry, Julio doesn’t have those kinds of paydays.”

Chavez, who is believed to have earned $2.5 million against Haugen, seems to have only one other opponent out there--Whitaker--who could take him to big pay-per-view dollars. And that’s assuming Whitaker beats Buddy McGirt on Saturday.

One thing is certain--Chavez won’t get $2.5 million again for Haugen. That mismatch should have come as no surprise to anyone.

The WBC, to support the show, had Haugen ranked second among the world’s junior-welterweights. Much closer to the truth was Boxing Illustrated, which ranked Haugen 20th.

Boxing Notes

Olympic update: The Olympic Auditorium has its first new coat of exterior paint and a new roof. Plumbing and electricity had previously been redone. Owner Jack Needleman reports that rain has slowed some work, but that he now expects renovation to be complete by June 1. About 10,000 new theater seats have been ordered. . . . Robert Garcia, an 18-year-old featherweight from Oxnard, will make his local pro debut tonight at the Forum in a four-rounder. Garcia turned pro in Japan last year, where he was 3-0 in four-rounders. March 22 at the Forum: heavyweights Tyrell Biggs (22-6) and Dave Dixon (16-2).

No-surprise Dept.: A Ring Magazine poll of boxing insiders showed that Reno’s Mills Lane was voted the sport’s No. 1 referee. Joe Cortez and Richard Steele, both of Las Vegas, were second and third, respectively.

Recommended: Phil Berger’s “Berger on Boxing,” soon to be published by Four Walls, Eight Windows. Berger, a former New York Times boxing writer, examines such figures as Leon Spinks, Sugar Ray Leonard, Eddie Futch, Mike Tyson and Tony Ayala. Sample: Berger, re-creating a conversation with mercurial fighter Hector Camacho, talking about his between-fights wanderlust: “(I’d get) so depressed I’d take the car to the airport, take my kit, $2,000, a credit card. I’d look at the arrivals-departure board and pick a place. Hawaii. I slept a whole week there without going swimming. I’d sleep, eat. I was always tired. Come home for two days. Go to Detroit. . .”