Ruelas’ Timing Off After Getting Clocked in Second

Some advice: If you’re a batter, don’t wait for strike four. If you’re a race car driver, don’t wait for the paisley flag. And if you’re a boxer who has just been thumped to the canvas, don’t wait for the count of 11.

Rafael Ruelas, the previously unbeaten lightweight from Arleta who was seemingly on the verge of smashing into the world boxing scene, made that last mistake Tuesday night at the Country Club in Reseda. Knocked down by a crushing left hook from Mauro Gutierrez in the second round, Ruelas quickly cleared his head and rested on one knee as referee Chuck Hassett began to count over him.

Five. Six. Seven.

Ruelas, eyes clear and a look of embarrassment on his face, looked at his trainer, Joe Goossen, who seconds earlier had implored Ruelas: “Stay down. Take your time.”

Eight. Nine.

“Get up,” Goossen shrieked.

Ruelas did not budge.

Ten.

The referee shouted that last number and waved his arms over the kneeling Ruelas, signaling the end of the fight. Then, Ruelas bolted from the canvas, bewildered.

The crowd of nearly 1,000, virtually all of them Ruelas fans, booed loudly.

At what?

“There’s nothing to say,” Hassett said. “He was on one knee at the count of 10. I don’t have many options, you know. He was down, he was out. It wasn’t even close.”

It goes into the record books as a second-round knockout. Time: 1:32.

It will go into Ruelas’ personal memoirs as oops.

“I can’t believe I did that,” a still-shocked Ruelas said moments after the fight. “I can’t believe that just happened. He caught me with a good left hook, but I recovered quickly, in just a second or two. I was fine. I got to one knee and was going to get up, but I looked at my corner and Joe was telling me to stay down and rest. So I did.

“The next thing I hear is 10. It was a mistake, that’s all. Just a mistake. I looked at my corner and lost concentration. I heard the referee say five and six, and then I lost track of the count, and then I hear 10.

“I can’t believe it.”

Both Ruelas and Goossen claimed Hassett was partly responsible for the strange ending, saying the count was not issued loudly enough and that Hassett did not, as rules require, stand in front of Ruelas and clearly use his fingers to show the count to the fighter.

But Hassett’s count was heard at ringside by most reporters. And Hassett seemed to be standing directly in front of the kneeling Ruelas after the count reached five.

“Really, I’d rather not blame anybody,” Goossen said. “Maybe Chuck didn’t count loud enough or stand where he should have, but I don’t want to blame him. It was a mental lapse. The fighter is supposed to pick up the count and respond to it. My job is to help him, and I guess I didn’t do that, either.”

Ruelas, 135, drops to 27-1. Gutierrez, 134, of Tijuana, seemed as shocked as Ruelas when the fight was stopped. He is 45-15-5 with 28 knockouts.

The scheduled 12-round fight was for a little-known title, the World Boxing Council’s Continental Americas lightweight championship. The loss of that title is meaningless, but the official knockout loss puts Ruelas under a mandatory 45-day suspension by the state Athletic Commission. It also cancels Ruelas’ scheduled Aug. 17 fight in San Diego on national television against former world lightweight champion Eusebio Pedroza.

Gaining a measure of revenge for the family later in the evening was Rafael’s brother Gabriel, who hammered out a lopsided 12-round decision over Aaron Lopez of San Antonio, Tex.

Gabriel, 24-1, was fighting for just the third time since a one-year layoff because of a broken bone in his right elbow incurred during a bout in April, 1990. Gabriel, who is 10 months older than Rafael, dominated every round. He knocked Lopez down in the third round with a thundering right uppercut but could not put Lopez away.

In the second round, Lopez momentarily stunned Ruelas with a right to the jaw, but Ruelas did not fall and toward the end of round wobbled Lopez with a heavy combination.

Also, middleweight Joey DeGrandis, 160, of North Hollywood pounded out a unanimous decision over Erwin Brown, 164, of San Jose, in a four-round bout. DeGrandis is 10-1 and Brown fell to 12-5.

Heavyweight Rocky Pepeli, 231, of Burbank, capped the night with a one-punch demolition of Jack Johnson, 239, of Stockton, at 2:21 of the first round of a scheduled four-rounder. Pepeli is 11-3-1 with 10 knockouts. Johnson is 8-2.