BOXING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Two Fighters Going the Distance to Keep Their Distance

They run the same trails, but never cross paths. They shop in the same stores, gaze at the same winter landscape, work out in the same gym, train with the same ferocity.

Yet Oscar De La Hoya has not seen Rafael Ruelas since both arrived in this mountain town in late December to train for separate fights.

Trying to avoid somebody for weeks in Big Bear is not easy. Imagine Andy trying to hide from Goober in Mayberry.

The separation is by design. It is more interesting because De La Hoya is renting a gymnasium owned by Larry Goossen, whose brother, Joe, trains Ruelas of the enemy camp.

De La Hoya, prepping for his Feb. 18 fight against John-John Molina, gets to the gym in the morning. Ruelas, who is sharing the bill with brother Gabriel on a card Saturday in Las Vegas, takes over at 2:45.

Both camps have rented homes in the woods.

“We don’t know where he (De La Hoya) is, and he doesn’t know where we are,” Joe Goossen said.

That’s the way both fighters want it.

Yet, not a day goes by that Oscar does not think about Rafael and Rafael about Oscar.

This odd training camp juxtaposition is not lost on either fighter. While neither Los Angeles-based champion can afford to look ahead, their pending bouts are but preludes to a proposed May 6 showdown between De La Hoya and Ruelas.

It figures to be the most anticipated fight involving local fighters in years.

Ruelas (42-1, 33 knockouts) is the quiet, confident, reigning International Boxing Federation lightweight champion.

De La Hoya (16-0, 15 KOs) is the Olympic gold medalist, “the Golden Boy,” the richer and more famous of the two even though he holds the less prestigious World Boxing Organization lightweight title.

Once sparring partners, Ruelas and De La Hoya have now drawn their lines in the snow.

“In other camps, we have befriended each other,” De La Hoya said over lunch in a local coffee shop. “But this camp, for me, it’s all business. I know if I see him now, I don’t think I’ll say anything. I’ll just walk away. It’s already starting now.”

Ruelas said the two boxers last saw each other Nov. 19 in Las Vegas, the day after De La Hoya had easily disposed of Carl Griffith at the MGM Grand Garden.

Afterward, De La Hoya was already looking ahead, saying he thought a proposed bout with Ruelas would be his easiest fight to date.

The comment greatly offended Ruelas, who twice defeated De La Hoya while they were amateurs.

Ruelas said that when they saw each other in Las Vegas, De La Hoya ignored him.

“He will not look me in the eyes,” Ruelas said as he and brother Gabe relaxed at their Big Bear home before training. “I had heard he said I was going to be his easiest fight. I take that as, he’s trying to psych himself up.”

With Ruelas on the horizon, De La Hoya does not relish having to train in the enemy camp. The situation, though, will soon be resolved as De La Hoya plans to build his own training complex in Big Bear.

“We’ll still be up there, thinking of each other,” De La Hoya said. “But it won’t affect my training. It won’t make me think, ‘He’s here, I might run into him.’ It’s a fight in the ring, not outside the ring.”

That has not stopped De La Hoya from complaining that he is being overcharged to work out at Goossen’s gym.

“He (Larry Goossen) would charge other fighters like $120 a month, but would charge us maybe $2,000-$3,000 a month,” De La Hoya said. “It’s not right, just because we’re rivals and just because we’re making that much money. They shouldn’t be taking advantage of that.”

The only thing that can spoil this much-ballyhooed showdown is an upset, which is not beyond the realm. Molina is the reigning IBF junior-lightweight champion. He’s moving up in weight to fight for De La Hoya’s WBO title.

In Las Vegas this week, Ruelas faces Britain’s Billy Schwer (26-1, 21 KOs), the IBF’s No. 2-ranked contender. Ruelas was supposed to fight Schwer last October in Hong Kong, but the fight fell through.

If all goes as planned, the boxing world will start counting the days until May.

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More Oscar: De La Hoya always seems to have a few subplots working for each fight. Here’s one for Feb. 18: Lou Duva, who trains Molina, has a history with De La Hoya. Duva and manager Shelly Finkel invested a lot of time and money in De La Hoya as an amateur with the hopes of signing him as a pro. But De La Hoya decided to sign with the management team of Steve Nelson and Rob Mittleman, which he later dumped.

Finkel is suing De La Hoya for $500,000 in “seed” money he feels is owed to him.

“Shelly did a lot of things for Oscar,” Duva said.

Duva, of course, might have ended up as Oscar’s trainer. Instead, he’ll be working with Molina.

“We have a vested interest in this fight,” Duva said recently.

De La Hoya said not signing with Finkel-Duva was strictly business.

“I guess he holds a grudge,” De La Hoya said of Duva. “Lou Duva wants to get back at me. But John-John is the one who has to fight me. Lou Duva isn’t going to fight me.”

Would Duva have trained De La Hoya different?

“I would have taught him how to fight,” Duva said. “I’m telling you, he doesn’t know how to fight. Just because a guy can punch a little doesn’t mean he knows how to fight.”

Duva warns that De La Hoya had better not look beyond Molina to Ruelas.

“I think it would be stupid for him to be thinking of the Ruelas fight,” Duva said. “He’s fighting a guy who’s a tough son of a gun.”

Duva does agree with De La Hoya on one point:

“If he beats Molina, I think he’ll knock out Ruelas,” Duva said. “Ruelas is the easier fight of the two.”

Boxing Notes

Forum Boxing’s March 31 show at The Pond of Anaheim is official: In the main event of a card that will feature four world title fights, flyweight champion Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez will defend his International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Council titles against Jesus Zuniga. In other 12-round title fights, Alejandro Gonzalez, who recently took the World Boxing Council 126-pound title from Kevin Kelley in the fight of the year to date, will make his first defense against former two-time world champion Louie Espinoza; World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez of Mission Viejo takes on Jorge Paez, and Daniel Jimenez will make the third defense of his World Boxing Organization junior-featherweight title against Marco Antonio Barrera.