BOXING : Ruelas Is a Big Hit at the Forum

Gabriel Ruelas, tossing his normal style aside and upstaging Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez’s return to the ring in the process, turned on the power Saturday night at the Forum in a five-round technical knockout of Ben Lopez.

Ruelas, a lightweight known more for his movement than his mashing, came out firing before 5,026 and did not back down until the referee stopped the fight with Lopez dazed against the ropes, at 2:29 of the fifth.

The victory raised Ruelas’ record to 34-2 with 17 knockouts.

Gonzalez, a flyweight who was making his first appearance since losing an action-packed fight to Michael Carbajal in March, looked sluggish early but rallied in the middle and late rounds to take a unanimous decision over Pablo Tiznado.

Other than the appearance of Julio Cesar Chavez, what stirred the crowd was the Ruelas slugfest, which assuredly will allow him to retain his No. 1 ranking in the World Boxing Council.

“He changed his style,” said Lopez (20-12-1). “I thought I would be a lot stronger, but he had a lot of power when we were toe-to-toe. He just started throwing punches at me until he took me out.”

It was a vast departure from Ruelas’ unaggressive approach in his last fight, a losing decision against Azumah Nelson for the WBC title in February.

“The Nelson fight taught him everything, “ said Ruelas’ promoter, Dan Goossen. “He’s learned what it takes to win a title in the ring.”

After easily winning the opening round with hard hooks to the head, Ruelas spent almost the entire second round toe to toe with Lopez in a neutral corner, slugging away.

“I’ve been working on my power a lot after the Nelson fight,” Ruelas said. “Not that I lost the fight because of that, but hey, you need everything you can to win a title fight.”

Ruelas also spent portions of the fight showing off his quick upper-body movement, flashing his head and chest away from Lopez’s punches while standing right in front of him.

“I could do that for 20 rounds, if I had to,” Ruelas said. “I just haven’t had the chance to show it in the ring. That’s why I did it.”

In the Gonzalez fight, Tiznado opened a cut over Gonzalez’s left eye in the fourth round, but that only seemed to enliven Gonzalez on his way to his 36th victory in 38 fights. Tiznado, who has never been knocked out, is 14-6-2.

“He was a difficult fighter,” Gonzalez said through a translator. “He moved around a lot.”

Gonzalez did not agree that he might have been rusty.

“I did the best I could,” he said. “It was a good win for me.”

Marco Antonio Barrera raised his record to 27-0 with 18 knockouts by winning a unanimous 12-round decision over Eduardo Ramirez in a super-flyweight bout. Barrera, 19, scored with precision to retain his North American Boxing Federation super-flyweight title.