Zavala’s Career in Overdrive : Boxing: Unbeaten super-bantamweight’s rise through the ranks has been slowed only by freeway commuting. But he has made a move.

At 23, Rudy Zavala looks at his boxing future and pretty much likes what he sees.

He sees money and maybe a championship or two.

He also sees a lot less of something.

Traffic.

Zavala used to rise at 5:30 a.m. each day in Rosemead and drive to Huntington Beach, where he ran six miles on the beach. Then he drove back to Rosemead.

Then at 11:15, he drove to Westminster for a two-hour gym workout with his trainer and manager. Then he drove back to Rosemead, where he lived with his wife, two children, and his parents.

Before his recent move to Costa Mesa, he had put 15,000 miles on his ’88 Mazda since July.

So far in his career, Zavala, a super-bantamweight (122 pounds), has been pressed more by freeway traffic than by opponents. He is 14-0 and recently signed a two-year contract for eight fights a year with Las Vegas promoter Bob Arum.

At the outset, Zavala will make about $7,000 a fight for Arum’s firm, Top Rank.

The onetime San Gabriel High soccer and baseball player had 11 knockouts in his 14 victories, mainly on Forum cards. Predictably, his manager’s phone started ringing.

“Rudy reached the point . . . where he had three options,” said Herb Stone of Newport Beach, who owns a bicycle shop and manages Zavala.

“He could have signed multifight deals with the Forum, with Cedric Kushner or with Arum. We weighed everything and decided Arum offered Rudy much more exposure.”

Top Rank supplies ESPN with a weekly boxing series and Zavala made his ESPN debut for Arum Nov. 14 in Bozeman, Mont., stopping journeyman Lee Cargle in five rounds. On a card headlined by 1988 Olympian Todd Foster, the show was seen in 2,179,000 homes, according to Top Rank.

Zavala’s next ESPN appearance is scheduled for Thursday at the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas. He will fight Tommy Valdez of Hermosillo, Mexico. Valdez is 34-9-1.

Zavala made it to ESPN after a one-round knockout of Mark Brooks Oct. 21 at the Forum. It was another step up in the caliber of his opposition. Brooks had fought in Japan for the last several years and was an experienced, competent boxer.

Zavala’s powerful right hand is delivered quickly, with no warning. There is no windup, simply a short right, straight from the shoulder. He knocked Brooks flat on his back with it.

“Rudy throws punches properly, and that’s rare to see these days,” said Bruce Trampler, matchmaker for Top Rank.

Zavala also has shown he can think as well as hit. On Aug. 26 at the Forum, he fought Virgilio Openio, who dominated the first two rounds. Zavala stayed cool while he figured out his opponent.

And when he had figured him out, he closed the show with a sixth-round knockout. Zavala’s timing was good that night, for Arum was a second-row spectator.

Once, Zavala was on track to become a jockey. His father, Rodolfo, who brought his family to Rosemead from Tijuana in 1977, had his son walking horses at Caliente Race Track.

“I wanted Rudy to be a jockey, and when he was very young I got him a job walking horses at Caliente,” he said.

That was when Zavala’s weight was in double digits. Then 100 pounds came and went. Today, he is a muscular, very lean 122 pounds. Arum and Trampler hope he can win a title at featherweight (126 pounds) in a year or so.

And here is one fighter who didn’t learn his trade on the streets.

“I never allowed Rudy to run around,” said Rodolfo Zavala, a watchmaker. “He stayed in school, stayed busy with sports, like soccer and baseball. I didn’t even like it when he told me: ‘I’m going over to my friend’s house.’

“When he was 15, I took him to a gym in El Monte and got him boxing lessons.”

Long gone are the after-school, 85-cent RTD rides from San Gabriel High to the South El Monte Gym. And finally gone too are the twice-daily commutes between Rosemead and Orange County.