Undefeated Ruelas Wins State Featherweight Title

Richard Abila had the words El Chango embroidered onto his boxing shorts for his California featherweight championship fight Tuesday night against Rafael Ruelas of Arleta.

El Chango means The Monkey, which is Abila’s nickname.

And, in the seventh round, Abila’s handlers were in the ring, trying to get The Monkey off his back.

Ruelas, 125, won the vacant title by stopping Abila of Los Angeles in the seventh round of a scheduled 12-round fight at the Country Club in Reseda.

Ruelas, 19, ran his record to 22-0 with his 19th knockout. It was the first time he had fought for a title.

Ruelas knocked Abila (16-7) down midway through the seventh round with a straight left and the referee stopped the fight. Ruelas had dominated the fight, winning each round easily as Abila, 126, threw few punches and landed one only occasionally.

In an earlier bout, former middleweight contender Alex Ramos, a New Yorker living in Simi Valley, weathered a severe beating early in the fifth round, then stopped Roberto Rosiles at the end of the round.

It was Ramos’ second victory in two fights since a two-year layoff. Ramos, a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, spent more than 20 months in state prison on an assault conviction.

He was taking a fierce pounding at the hands of Rosiles in the fifth round when he suddenly landed a right under Rosiles’ left ear and followed it with a right to the body.

Rosiles went down from the second punch, and, after the bell, his handlers asked the ringside doctor to stop the fight.

Dr. Robert Karnes said Rosiles sustained a broken jaw, apparently from the blow that preceded the body punch.

Ramos is 30-8-2. Rosiles, of Mexicali, Mexico, is 21-12-1.

In another bout, heavyweight Rocky Pepeli of Burbank, knocked down by a left hook to the chin in the second round, came back to stop William Morris of Ontario, Calif., early in the third round.

Pepeli, 228, went down hard midway through the second round after running into a heavy left hook from Morris, 250.

Pepeli was up quickly, however, and just seconds after the fight resumed he decked Morris with a left hook.

A right to the jaw sent Morris down for the second time late in the round, and just 38 seconds into the third, Pepeli caught him with a right and Morris crumbled.

Referee Fritz Werner immediately stopped the bout. Pepeli is 8-1-1 with eight knockouts. Morris is 0-3.

Also winning on the card were Joey DeGrandis of North Hollywood, who stopped George Rodriguez of Los Angeles in the second round of a super middleweight fight, and Larry Loy of Van Nuys, who won a controversial split decision over Iloefonso Bernal of San Diego in a featherweight bout.