The Paez Show Returns to the Forum : Boxing: What will he wear, what will he do tonight in his lightweight bout against Ruelas?

In what many agree is the most anticipated Southern California boxing match in years, Sylmar lightweight Rafael Ruelas meets Jorge Paez of Mexico tonight at the Forum.

Ruelas, 21, with a 33-1 record since turning pro in 1989, confronts his most formidable opponent. Paez, 27, is 41-4-4 and a former world featherweight champion.

The Forum boxing staff is expecting a crowd of about 10,000, which would be its largest boxing turnout since Julio Cesar Chavez stopped Roger Mayweather before 10,052 in 1989.

Paez is expected to generate most of the excitement. He is aggressive and throws punches from all directions. But in Ruelas, Paez faces a supremely confident fighter, one who has never wilted.

Paez, 5 feet 6, also faces a much taller foe. Ruelas is 5-10.

Less predictable are Paez’s wardrobe and haircut.

He’s a juggler, trapeze artist and clown in his family’s Mexicali-based traveling circus. His crazy haircuts--he favors Mohawks, with “No Drugs,” “Mexicali” or the Batman logo shaved into the sides--and wildly varying attire put him atop boxing’s showmanship ratings by a wide margin.

He has shown up for fights wearing everything from sequined tuxedos to fish-net jogging suits. For his last Forum match, against Brian Brown last August, he boxed in a black and white taffeta skirt, and when he entered the ring, his corner workers tossed condoms to the crowd.

He frequently pays more attention between rounds to round-card girls than to what his trainers are telling him, and once, in the Philippines, he charged off his stool and chased one around the ring.

He has also drawn the ire of boxing commissions in at least three countries for simulating sex during clinches with opponents, as he did in the fight here with Brown. The California commission staff is expected to inform Paez before tonight’s match that he risks disqualification if he repeats that behavior.

But for all his sideshow displays, Paez can fight. He’s a busy, charge-ahead, heavy-handed puncher.

He earned a piece of the featherweight title in 1988 when he defeated Calvin Grove in a Mexicali bullring.

Paez defended that title eight times--an unusually long reign--then moved up to junior-lightweight (130 pounds) and lost to Tony Lopez in Sacramento.

That Paez-Lopez fight, in 1990, clearly defined Paez’s drawing power. It drew 15,008 fans and an all-time California live gate record--$601,000.

In Mexico City, he put 22,000 people into the Plaza del Toros. In 1990, he signed a four-fight, $1.5-million deal with NBC.

When asked why he had given Paez so much, NBC boxing chief Kevin Monahan replied: “Because we’re in the entertainment business.”

Paez will earn $50,000 tonight, Ruelas $30,000.

These two were scheduled to fight Oct. 19, but a postponement resulted when Paez was knocked off his motorcycle in a Mexicali accident. Tickets purchased for that date will be honored tonight.

The minimum at stake tonight is one of boxing’s many meaningless titles, in this case the vacant North American Boxing Federation lightweight championship. Of more importance are fat purses down the road for the winner.

Sacramento promoter Don Chargin is probably pulling for Paez, so he can put together Paez-Lopez II and go for another record gate at Arco Arena. Lopez, from Sacramento, recently won the World Boxing Assn. lightweight title.

But Chargin says Ruelas-Lopez also would draw well in Sacramento.

Then there’s the possibility that Mission Viejo’s Genaro Hernandez, the WBA junior-lightweight champion, could fit into either fighter’s future, should he elect to move up to lightweight.

And waiting in the wings is another high-profile lightweight. Oscar De La Hoya of East Los Angeles, who turns pro at the Forum on Nov. 23, was the only U.S. gold medalist at the Barcelona Olympics.

Ruelas flatly predicts he will stop Paez. “I’m not only confident I’ll beat him, I’m confident I’ll stop him,” he said.

“He’s not the kind of fighter who stays busy three minutes per round. I am. He likes to fight in flurries. But I’ll put pressure on him and force him to fight when he doesn’t want to.

“The first three or four rounds, I expect he’ll come after me. And I’ll bust him up, right there. I’m fully confident and fully relaxed. I’m always relaxed when I fight.”