It’s Time to Hail Cesar : Boxing: Up to 130,000 will be on hand to watch Julio Cesar Chavez, the pride of Mexico, fight Greg Haugen in one of four bouts tonight.

Ever since the mid-1980s, when Mexican idol Julio Cesar Chavez first came to be recognized as boxing’s greatest pound-for-pound performer, Mexicans have wondered how many people he could draw to Azteca Stadium.

Tonight, they will find out.

The spotlighted performer on a four-fight, pay-per-view show, Chavez’s match with Greg Haugen could draw 130,000 to Azteca, one of the world’s largest stadiums.

Televisa, co-promoters of the show with Don King and Dan Goossen, said Thursday that ticket sales had gone over 100,000.

Chavez, from Culiacan, Mexico, is defending his World Boxing Council junior-welterweight championship against Haugen, a heavy underdog from Henderson, Nev.

Also tonight, Gabe Ruelas of Sylmar finally gets his chance at a world title. Ruelas, 22, is a slight underdog against Azumah Nelson, 34, the junior-lightweight champion from Ghana. It is perceived as easily the most competitive fight tonight.

And Terry Norris, the junior-middleweight champion from Alpine, Calif., and a challenger to Chavez’s so-called “pound-for-pound” title, is favored over Maurice Blocker of Washington, D.C.

Norris, who will make $1.3 million, has 10 million more reasons to win convincingly, and hope Chavez does the same. Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich, has challenged Chavez to meet Norris in June or July at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium at 147 pounds, with $10 million going to each.

Said Sayatovich: “Terry would even meet Julio in Mexico City. It would be the biggest non-heavyweight fight in history. Chavez and (Hector) Camacho did 750,000 pay-per-view homes. Norris-Chavez is a much bigger fight.”

Norris is 33-3, Blocker 34-2.

Those three bouts are for World Boxing Council championships. Michael Nunn (39-1) defends his World Boxing Assn. super-middleweight title against Danny Morgan (39-1) of Minneapolis.

On paper, Chavez-Haugen does not shape up as a competitive match. But in Mexico City, nobody cares. It’s Julio, after 13 years as a pro, finally fighting in Azteca Stadium.

Chavez, 30, is 23-0 in championship fights.

Promoters list him as 84-0, but several U.S. record-keepers say he is 83-1. It seems Chavez was disqualified for hitting after the bell early in his career in a Culiacan fight. The three-man Culiacan boxing commission met the next day and reversed the loss. One of the commissioners was Chavez’s manager.

Haugen, 32, seems too slow and too punchless--in 37 fights, he has stopped only 16 opponents--to beat Chavez.

Haugen is 32-4-1 but has beaten two formerly undefeated champions, Vinny Pazienza and Hector Camacho.

He is durable--almost a modern-day Carmen Basilio or Gene Fullmer. Before he turned pro in 1982, Haugen was 26-0 in Alaska barroom “tough man” contests.

The salty-tongued Haugen has tempered his Chavez-directed insults since he arrived here, but has nonetheless hired a 25-man security force to escort him in and out of the stadium.

Chavez makes much of his personal dislike of Haugen, but how much of that is genuine and how much is hype is anyone’s guess.

Mexican reporters have badgered Haugen about anti-Mexican remarks attributed to him. He’s denied them all. But a month ago, when asked by The Times if he had considered his personal safety if he actually beats Chavez before, say, 130,000 Mexicans, he replied:

“First of all, I don’t think there’s 130,000 Mexicans who can afford to go.”

Chavez is fighting for a purse of $2.5 million, Haugen for $1 million.

Ruelas, 33-1 and Mexico-born, assumes the crowd will be supportive of his effort to dethrone Nelson, who since 1982 has lost one fight--a 1990 decision to Pernell Whitaker. In ‘82, Nelson was stopped by the late Salvador Sanchez. In 14 years, Nelson is 36-2-1.

Ruelas, in a sense, returns to his homeland tonight. He was born in the small Jalisco village of La Yerba Buena. Ruelas and his brother Rafael--two of 13 children--10 years ago joined older brothers in Southern California.

Gabe and Rafael grew up in Arleta and graduated from North Hollywood High. To help family finances, they sold candy door-to-door.

Recently, the brothers used their boxing earnings (Gabe will earn $40,000 tonight) to move their parents into a five-bedroom house in Sylmar.

Goossen, Ruelas’ manager, said his man must rise to the occasion.

“Gabe has to step up to the next level,” he said. “Azumah is (tough) and Gabe knows that. He’s ready, he’s strong enough. He’s sparred with much bigger fighters for this fight--Haugen and some welterweights.”