BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : A Decision That Is an Exception to the Ruelas

If you are punched on the chin in a boxing match and you go down for a 10-count, you are knocked out, right?

Right, universal boxing rule.

And if in California you are knocked out, you may not box again for 45 days, right?

Right, California laws governing boxing and martial arts--Article 8, Section 352: No fights for 45 days, no gym contact for 30 days.

Well, wait a minute. Not always. Turns out you can get a waiver, and make it seem as if the knockout never really happened, as the brothers Goossen did this week.

On July 30 in Reseda, Rafael Ruelas, Dan and Joe Goossen’s talented lightweight, was nailed solidly by two left hooks thrown by Mauro Gutierrez. Ruelas, a heavy favorite, was knocked down, then got to one knee. Ruelas, who appeared stunned but not hurt, then began studying the gestures of his trainer, Joe Goossen, instead of paying attention to referee Chuck Hassett’s count. Hassett counted him out, and Ruelas then bounded to his feet, startled and angry to discover the fight was over.

Ruelas had already been scheduled to fight in San Diego next Saturday, on the undercard of the Terry Norris-Brett Lally fight. The 45/30 rule meant that Ruelas would have to take the next six weeks off instead.

But of course, this is why fighters have managers.

Next thing you knew, Ruelas had been given a waiver of the 45/30 rule.

“This was an extreme situation, the kind of situation that might never happen again and we took that into account,” said Steve English, the California Athletic Commission’s assistant executive officer, who ruled on the case.

“Everyone who was there knows it was a mental error (by Ruelas). . . . I’m in favor of some flexibility in the rules. If he had looked stunned to me, I would have said, ‘No way.’ And when Dan asked for a waiver, my gut reaction was, ‘A knockout is a knockout.’ ”

Before issuing the waiver, English ordered Ruelas to undergo testing by a commission-designated neurosurgeon, who pronounced the fighter clear of any head injury. Nevertheless, since a knockout here isn’t necessarily a knockout anymore, many in the boxing community were startled by the waiver.

“In my 40 years in boxing in California, I’ve never heard of a fighter getting a waiver like that,” Sacramento promoter Don Chargin said.

Prediction: English will find that he has opened a can of worms. During the next few years, managers will ask for waivers of the 45/30 rule, citing the Ruelas case.

Troy Dorsey, who defends his featherweight championship against Manuel Medina on Monday night at the Forum, is hoping that Jeff Fenech beats Azumah Nelson on Dec. 7 in Australia.

If he does, Dorsey says that he would be in line for a big-money--$500,000 is a figure he has in mind--unification fight in Sydney with Fenech, who lost a disputed decision to Nelson on June 28 at Las Vegas. So far, Dorsey’s biggest payday was $75,000, for his second fight with Jorge Paez at Las Vegas. He will make only $7,500 Monday, but it beats sparring-partner wages. He came into the sport from kick-boxing, as a sparring partner for former featherweight champion Steve Cruz.

“In 1986, I needed a sparring partner to help Cruz get ready for his title fight with Barry McGuigan,” said Dave Gorman, who trains Dorsey and also guided Cruz to an upset victory over McGuigan. “I needed someone just like McGuigan, someone who bored in, very aggressive, threw a lot of punches. . . . Troy was just then converting from kick-boxing and he was a super sparring partner for Steve.

“In fact, both Steve and I still give Troy a lot of credit for Cruz beating McGuigan, because he made him work so hard in the gym.”

Dorsey won his share of the featherweight crown with one punch June 3, on the undercard of the Thomas Hearns-Virgil Hill card at Las Vegas. With one first-round right hand, he knocked out Alfred Rangel.

“Rangel threw a lot of jabs, so I was looking to counter over one of them,” Dorsey said. “And when I saw early in the round that he was dropping his left hand a little, I was looking even harder.

“It was the first right hand I threw. I got him on the tip of the chin. You know when you’ve nailed a guy good, and I felt that punch up in my shoulders. When I looked at him on the floor, I knew he wasn’t getting up.”

The fight in Razor Ruddock’s corner, which broke out during the June 28 Ruddock-Mike Tyson fight, is still going on. Ruddock’s corner was chaotic throughout the 12-round bout, with several people talking at once to their fighter and sometimes even forgetting to bring the stool.

Later, Ruddock’s promoter, Murad Muhammad, said he had fired everyone in the corner (except Ruddock), citing a lack of “generals.” The day after the fight, he told one trainer, Art Miles of Los Angeles, that Miles had been fired.

But Miles had this response this week: “I work for Razor Ruddock. Until he tells me I’m fired, I’m not fired.”

Then, in an apparent knock at Slim Robinson, Ruddock’s head trainer, Miles added: “There are a lot of people in boxing who talk a great game when they need a job. But when the whistle blows, they can’t perform.”

Boxing Notes

Remember Hector Lopez, the Glendale fighter who at one time was a No. 1-ranked featherweight? Lopez is telling friends he might be released from the California Men’s Prison at Tehachapi before the end of this month. He has been imprisoned 23 months for kidnaping his girlfriend, beating her father and pistol-whipping a friend of her father’s.

Lopez, 24, won a boxing silver medal for Mexico at the 1984 Olympic Games, when he was 17 and a student at Glendale Hoover High. Said Gordon Wheeler, who was Lopez’s trainer before his incarceration: “There are no boxing facilities at the prison, but Hector tells me he weighs 145 pounds, that he does pushups and sit-ups every day and is running a lot. He’s very anxious to resume his career at lightweight and wants to fight Rafael Ruelas.”

The managers of Virgil Hill and Bobby Czyz have agreed to terms on a match for Czyz’s cruiserweight championship but haven’t found a promoter. The Forum is trying to line up TV money for the fight. . . . Burbank’s annual one-night amateur boxing show will be held Sept. 16 at the Burbank Hilton, promoted by a group that might bring pro boxing cards to the hotel’s 2,000-seat convention center.

From Burbank, it is on to boxing in Albania. There, two months after the collapse of Communist rule, the sport is making a comeback. Two former Albanian boxers, Ahmet Golemi and Dhori Gernjoti, both 50, will meet in a symbolic revival bout. The late Stalinist Albanian leader, Enver Hoxha, banned boxing in 1963.

The Darrin Van Horn-John Jarvis show at UC Irvine’s Bren Center next Saturday will begin at 1 p.m. . . . Jack Dempsey was paid $5,000 for being the referee in the 1939 Ceferino Garcia-Glen Lee middleweight title fight in Manila; he also got $5,000 to cover expenses. He earned $5,000 for working a 1940 fight in Caracas, Venezuela. Recently, this column reported that Harry Ertle was paid $2,500 for being the referee in the 1921 Dempsey-Georges Carpentier fight, the same amount referees are paid for major fights today.