Garcia Comeback Continues in Bout With State Champion

From the wonderful world of boxing we bring you Tuesday night’s main event at the Country Club in Reseda: Alex Garcia will fight a man who is still the California heavyweight champion despite having been knocked unconscious in the first round of his most recent bout. Oh, and the scheduled 10-round fight will not be for the California championship.

Lionel Washington of Los Angeles, the state champion, was leveled two minutes into his bout against former World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion Mike Weaver when the two fought at the Forum earlier this year. But that fight, like Tuesday’s against Garcia, was a non-title bout.

The loss to Weaver dropped Washington’s record to 10-5.

Garcia, 27, of San Fernando came back from his only loss as a professional by flattening the oft-flattened Eddie Richardson of Dallas on Aug. 29. Garcia had not fought in nine months before that bout, apparently needing the rest after he was knocked out by then-California heavyweight champion Dee Collier.

Garcia, 12-1 and a former national amateur super-heavyweight champion, is trying to climb the ladder of contention in the rankings of any of the many boxing organizations. He knows it will take a string of impressive victories to vault him into a big-money fight, and he also knows that he can’t afford another setback.

In other action, the unbeaten Ruelas brothers of North Hollywood will take on two lightly regarded fighters out of Tijuana in scheduled six-round bouts. Gabriel Ruelas (15-0, nine knockouts) is scheduled to fight Romero Rodriguez (11-5-2) in a featherweight bout. Rafael Ruelas (9-0, seven knockouts) will fight Jose Luis Vasquez (5-3-2) in a junior featherweight bout.

Also, Danny Garcia (9-4-1) of Oxnard will fight Art Lizzarraga (6-12-2) of Bakersfield in a scheduled eight-round junior welterweight bout; Troy Baudoin (2-0) of Los Angeles will take on J. R. Frye (1-0) of Phoenix in a scheduled four-round heavyweight bout, and Rocky Pepeli (4-2-1) of Burbank will fight Rick Giannone (0-1) of Simi Valley in another scheduled four-round heavyweight bout.

The card begins at 7:30 p.m.