Ruelas Joins His Brother With Title

In a wild display of what he called “raw power,” Gabriel Ruelas punched away with abandon and won the World Boxing Council junior-lightweight title here Saturday night.

Ruelas dropped Jesse James Leija in the second and 12th rounds with identical right uppercuts that sent Leija backward to the canvas.

Ruelas, from Sylmar, won easily on all three judges’ card, and joins with his brother, International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas, to form the sport’s only world champion brother combination.

And when it was over, the usually quiet 24-year-old bounced around the ring, hugging anybody near him, and declared that he would be happy for the rest of his life.

“Whatever happens next, I have a son, and I have a title, so I will be happy,” said Ruelas, who added that he never dreamed that after suffering a broken right elbow in a bout four years ago that he would be a champion.

Said trainer Joe Goossen: “It’s hard for Gabriel to show emotion, he rarely does that. But after this one he actually ran over and gave me a big hug. And he’s never done that to me in his life.”

The bigger, stronger, younger Ruelas pounced on the 28-year-old Leija early and continuously, ducking under Leija’s better shots. Ruelas (39-2, 22 knockouts), who had been knocked down twice in two recent tuneups, said the real moment of truth came in the first, when Leija hit him directly on the chin with a hard right hand.

“He hit me, and I wasn’t about to go down,” a jubilant Ruelas said afterward. “It was his best, and I knew it, and that’s when I knew the fight was mine.

“I knew I was going to dominate him after that.”

Ruelas never stopped charging Leija (28-1-2), whose face was swollen and cut by the time the third round was over. Leija, who won the title last May in a rematch with Azumah Nelson, had never been knocked down before.

After the bout, Ruelas said he learned the lesson from his first title challenge, a decision loss to Nelson last year.

“I couldn’t tell if I was going fast or slow,” Ruelas said of this fight, “I just wanted to win every round.”

Leija said that he suffered an ankle injury while going down in the second, and that kept him from getting inside Ruelas’ shots to score. But, he added: “He had a lot of power--more than I expected.”

At 2:30 of the second, Ruelas smashed Leija with a huge right uppercut that toppled Leija backward.

By the end of the fifth, Ruelas’ constant shots had Leija flinching and unable to pull the trigger on his usually effective counterpunches.

“I told Gabriel, ‘Let’s not worry about what he does, let’s do what we do best,’ ” Goossen said. “Let him adjust to us. We don’t want to fight at his pace, let’s make him fight at our pace.”

But Leija rallied with about 20 seconds remaining in the fifth, landing a low right to the side of Ruelas’ head as he ducked, sending Ruelas to the canvas for a knockdown.

That would be the only highlight for Leija, though, except for a point penalty assessed to Ruelas by referee Joe Cortez for a low blow. Leija continued complaining about borderline shots for the rest of the fight, but Ruelas was not penalized again.

Chuck Giampa scored it 115-109, Carol Castellano had it 115-111 and Anek Hongtongkam scored it 116-108.

Then, when a doctor asked Ruelas to take off his new title belt for a post-fight examination, Ruelas laughed and quietly shook his head.

“I know you’re giving it back,” Ruelas said, “but right now, after what it took to get this, I don’t want to take it off for anybody.”

In other title fights, Felix Trinidad retained his IBF welterweight title by stopping Yory Boy Campas in the fourth round. Trinidad (24-0, 20 KOs) was knocked down in the second, but got up and pummeled Campas relentlessly in the fourth round before referee Richard Steele stopped the bout.

Campas (56-1) suffered a broken nose.

Frankie Randall, who won the WBC junior-welterweight title then lost it back to Julio Cesar Chavez, defeated Juan Coggi to take Coggi’s World Boxing Assn. 145-pound belt.

Randall (33-3-1), who is looking for a second rematch with Chavez, knocked Coggi down twice after Coggi (66-3-2) sent him to the canvas in the first round. Randall won a unanimous decision.

Earlier, WBC strawweight champion Ricardo Lopez (37-0, 27 KOs) knocked out Yodsing Au Saengmorokot (13-1) in the first round and Gianfranco Rosi (57-4-1) lost his International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight title when he was knocked out in the third round by Vincent Pettway (37-4-1, 30 KOs).