WHY DE LA HOYA WILL WIN : Ruelas Makes Perfect Fall Guy

Draw up Oscar De La Hoya’s nightmare opponent, and he wouldn’t be anything close to Rafael Ruelas.

The scariest foe for De La Hoya would be quick and short enough to elude his head-high shots, have one-punch knockout power in each hand and a chin fortified with marble.

You get a fighter like that (and throw in the mobility to make De La Hoya initiate the action), then you start wondering whether De La Hoya can survive the heat.

But draw up De La Hoya’s dream scenario for a sudden knockout victory, and Ruelas’ often off-balance, charging style, wiry 5-foot-11 frame, looping punches and questionable chin are relatively made to order.

De La Hoya loves it when opponents come to him, are available to be hit and go down when he lands clean combinations. Against a fighter like that, you start wondering whether the count will reach 10 or referee Richard Steele will wait that long after two or three trips to the canvas.

Ruelas, matched against any other style of fighter, is a dominant force.

But to believe he is going to beat De La Hoya--the stronger, swifter, more adaptable fighter--you have to throw away all the usual criteria and believe in Ruelas’ heart, without reservation or respect for the other man’s skill.

To believe Ruelas can weather De La Hoya’s early-round attack, take blast after blast as he chases De La Hoya, then pick apart the younger fighter for a late-round knockout or decision, you have to believe that this will come down to toughness and that De La Hoya is severely lacking it.

I can’t make that call.

Is Ruelas a fiercer competitor? Probably, but De La Hoya, after some middle-round uncertainty, showed plenty of channeled rage in the latter stages of his victory over John John Molina in February.

Has Ruelas beaten down talented fighters before? Yes. But there is nobody in the lightweight division who has the ability to put punches together the way De La Hoya can, nobody else who can flatten champions with a single blow.

Has Ruelas proved things about his character that De La Hoya hasn’t and probably never will? Maybe, but character doesn’t block left hooks and, eventually, it won’t numb the pain.

“Sometimes, the styles just come up where it becomes a case where the things one guy does well matches up with the things the other guy does bad,” trainer Teddy Atlas said.

“Ruelas is a game guy, a workmanlike guy, a no-frills kind of guy, old-fashioned, he earns it. But he throws punches from too far away, and he throws them wide.”

Sometimes, even the most respected, strongest-willed fighters run into a matchup they cannot overcome by determination alone.

Could I be wrong? Well, only if you think Axel Schulz beat George Foreman, and you think anybody who scored it the opposite shouldn’t open his mouth.

Oh, well: De La Hoya by fourth-round knockout.