BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : He Isn’t Concerned About Crowd Size

Attendance forecasts for Don King’s pay-per-view card Feb. 20 at 120,000-seat Azteca Stadium in Mexico City are running from 55,000 to 130,000.

How many will be pulling for Gabe Ruelas of Sylmar, who finally gets his championship opportunity when he fights Azumah Nelson of Ghana on the card, which is topped by Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Greg Haugen?

“First of all, it doesn’t matter to me if there’s 100 or 100,000 people there,” Ruelas said from his Big Bear training camp. “All I care about is Nelson.

“It’s a big thrill for me to get him in the ring finally, and I couldn’t care less how many are there. But I will have some people wanting me to win. More than 100 La Yerba Buena people will be there,” he said, referring to the Jalisco mountain village where he and his brother Rafael were born.

“And I’m Hispanic and Nelson isn’t, so I hope a lot of people are cheering for me. But even if they don’t, it won’t matter. I’ll be concentrating only on Nelson and the title I want.”

At stake is Nelson’s World Boxing Counsel junior-lightweight championship, which he has defended three times.

At 34, Nelson seems much stronger than Ruelas, 22. Nelson, in 39 fights since 1979, has lost only to Salvador Sanchez in 1982 and Pernell Whitaker in 1990.

The powerfully built Ghanan has beaten such stars as Juan LaPorte, Wilfredo Gomez and Jeff Fenech, and in recent victories has looked 24, not 34.

A year ago, he went to Melbourne, fought Fenech in a soccer stadium and, in an overwhelming demonstration of power boxing, stopped the favored Aussie in eight rounds.

Nelson’s power and strength most concern Ruelas’ manager, Dan Goossen. Nelson is built like an Olympic weightlifter. Ruelas is strong and durable, but will seem more frail when he stands up to Nelson.

“I’ve done a lot of weight training the last two or three months,” Ruelas said. “I’m stronger. But even without weights, I’ll show Nelson I can hit him harder than he thinks I can. And I’m quicker than he is, too.”

Since he suffered a broken elbow while losing to Jeff Franklin and then spent 14 months recovering, Ruelas has won 12 in a row. Overall, he is 33-1.

“I’m mentally really prepared for this,” he said. “Up to now, it seemed like I always had so much to lose in my fights, being very careful not to lose. Now, with this one, it’s like I have nothing to lose, everything to win.”

The California Athletic Commission has enlisted the aid of a former commission chairman, Bob Fellmeth, in its drive for a tax on pay-per-view boxing telecasts beamed into California.

Bill Eastman, commission chairman, and his executive officer, Richard DeCuir, have said that unless it gets financial support from such a tax, the commission--in the face of an asked-for $200,000 budget cut--will close its doors.

No commission, they say, means no boxing.

A bill calling for such a tax failed in the legislature last year.

This time, there will be intense lobbying for passage. Nevada has such a tax.

Fellmeth has run the Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego the last 13 years. His group monitors 60 California public commissions, including the Athletic Commission.

“If they ask us to testify for the bill, we will,” he said.

“We’ve studied the commission’s financial situation and I’ll tell anyone who asks me: There is no other choice. No one’s being petulant about it. It’s a matter of either regulating boxing or not regulating boxing.

“Without that tax, there’s just no money to do it.”

He has never been spectacular, never been in the spotlight and never been a champion. Orlin Norris has labored in the shadow of his superstar younger brother, Terry Norris, the junior-middleweight champion. Now, finally, Orlin, a cruiserweight, will have a chance at center stage.

Norris, who will fight journeyman Troy Jefferson today in San Diego, will fight Bobby Czyz for the World Boxing Assn. cruiserweight title in March, date and site to be determined.

Norris is 34-3, having lost only to Tony Tucker on the undercard of the 1991 Virgil Hill-Tommy Hearns bout; in his third fight to Olian Alexander and to Bert Cooper, when he suffered a knee injury and could not finish.

Norris has trained as hard as his brother, but at 205 to 210 pounds, has always seemed slightly undersized against world-class heavyweights. His title match with Czyz will be at 190 pounds.

But Orlin won’t be sharing his trainer with his brother.

Abel Sanchez, the highly regarded onetime trainer of both Norris brothers, says Terry Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich, fired him last month. Sayatovich says Terry Norris fired Sanchez.

Whatever, Sanchez and Orlin Norris remain a team for the Czyz fight, a match secured by King with a purse bid on Jan. 20. The fight must occur between March 8 and March 22, or King forfeits the fight.

“Orlin has worked just as hard as Terry has,” Sanchez said. “He’s really earned this opportunity and wants to make the most of it.”

Boxing Notes

The oldest amateur boxing tournament in America, the U.S. national championships, are scheduled for March 1-6 at Colorado Springs. It’s the 105th national tournament. What is probably the second-oldest, the Bengal Mission Bouts at the University of Notre Dame, make their 63rd appearance the last week of this month. Finals will be held in the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center on the night of Feb. 24.

Add amateurs: USA Boxing administrators met recently in Colorado Springs to discuss why the United States won only one gold medal in Barcelona. Jerry Dusenberry, new USA Boxing president, was in charge and three former USA Boxing presidents were there, Col. Don Hull, Loring Baker and Billy Dove, along with former Olympic and international team coaches and team managers. A report is due in a month.

Abel Sanchez’s version of his departure as Terry Norris’ trainer: “Joe (Sayatovich, Norris’ manager) called me in about a month ago, and told me my percentage had to go from 7% to 3%, that I had to go on a fight-to-fight basis and that I couldn’t work with any other fighters. I told him no, no and no.”

Michael Nunn finally has repositioned himself for some big-money fights. The former middleweight champion was knocked out by James Toney in Davenport, Iowa, Nunn’s hometown, in 1991. That was after he had abruptly and without explanation walked out on his manager and trainer, Dan and Joe Goossen. Nunn was a million-dollar fighter with the Goossens, but he struggled on his own. Finally, he signed with Don King, moved up in weight and won Victor Cordoba’s super-middleweight championship on the undercard of the Julio Cesar Chavez-Hector Camacho card last September. He beat Cordoba in a rematch last week in Memphis and can now challenge the winner of the long-awaited super-middleweight bout Feb. 13 between Toney and Iran Barkley.

Joe McHugh, longtime Pennsylvania boxing and wrestling announcer, died recently in Allentown, Pa., at 88. . . . Arguments for a new trial for Mike Tyson will be heard Feb. 15 in Indiana Appeals Court. Tyson attorney Alan Dershowitz will make the appeal for the former heavyweight champion, who has been imprisoned for rape since last April. . . . Super-flyweights Cecilio Espino and Elio Dominguez will fight Thursday at the Hollywood Palladium. On the undercard will be former Pomona amateur standout Shane Mosley, in his pro debut. . . . WBA lightweight champion Tony Lopez will defend against Dingaan Thobela of South Africa in Sacramento next Friday.