Ruelas Wins State Featherweight Title

Rafael Ruelas of Arleta won the state featherweight championship Tuesday night by stopping Richard 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 fought for a title.

Ruelas knocked Abila down midway into the seventh round with a straight left and the referee stopped the fight. Ruelas dominated the fight, winning each round easily as Abila (16-7) threw few punches and didn’t land many.

Earlier, former middleweight contender Alex Ramos, a New Yorker living in Simi Valley, weathered a severe beating early in the fifth round and stopped Roberto Rosiles at the end of the round.

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

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

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

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

In another preliminary 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 in the third round.