Pasta, Flu, a Ghost and Nelson Combine to Knock Out Ruelas : Boxing: Former champion now unhappy with Garcia because, ‘He gave me a bad look.’

Nearly seven months after the title fight in which his punches caused the death of Jimmy Garcia, Gabriel Ruelas faced Garcia in the ring once again Friday night.

Saturday morning, Ruelas offered a possible explanation for the vision he saw of Garcia while Ruelas was losing his World Boxing Council super-featherweight title to Azumah Nelson on a fifth-round knockout. Ruelas revealed that he was suffering from flu-like symptoms before he entered the ring, everything from a feverish feeling to stomach pains, diarrhea, hot flashes and chills.

Even though a fever might explain Ruelas’ strange vision, it didn’t calm the rage Ruelas now feels toward Garcia.

When referee Marty Denkin pulled Nelson off Ruelas in a neutral corner in the fifth round and stopped the one-sided fight, Ruelas said he imagined he saw Garcia standing next to Denkin.

“He [Garcia] gave me a bad look,” Ruelas said, “as if to tell me, ‘That’s what you get.’ That made me feel anger at him. I am mad at him.”

That is certainly a different emotion from the one Ruelas has been expressing toward Garcia since Garcia’s death two weeks after the fight. Ruelas felt so badly about the outcome that he decided to donate his share of the pay-per-view telecast, an amount that could go as high as $400,000, to the three children Garcia left behind.

Ruelas plans to follow through on his offer, but will now do so through an intermediary rather than contact the Garcia family himself because of his experience with the vision that haunted him Friday.

“It’s over,” Ruelas said. “I am not going to do anything with the family anymore because of what happened.”

Does he really believe that Garcia is upset with him?

“I really don’t care,” Ruelas said

Joe Goossen, Ruelas’ trainer, cares very much about finding the cause of his fighter’s uncharacteristically erratic performance Friday night.

And he thinks he knows what it is. Would you believe spaghetti? Good old-fashioned spaghetti, with a little marinara sauce and more than a touch of garlic.

Goossen said that Ruelas started feeling sick early Friday afternoon after consuming the spaghetti at his Indian Wells hotel.

“It was either food poisoning or the flu,” Goossen said. “You know I’m not one to make excuses for my fighters, but I need a tangible reason for what happened.”

By the time Ruelas got to the Fantasy Springs Casino, site of the fight, his condition had worsened. He couldn’t even bounce on his feet, a normal prefight exercise, because of the pain.

Why didn’t he just call off the fight?

He definitely thought about it.

“But then, I looked around,” Ruelas said, “and I saw all the people and all the TV trucks and I knew this was all for me and I was already there.”

So instead, Ruelas entered the ring hoping he would feel better once he started exchanging blows.

His condition, he said, was the reason he came out throwing wild punches unlike any seen by those who have watched him throughout his career.

And his condition, Ruelas said, was the reason he crumpled to the canvas after taking a body shot from Nelson in the fourth round.

“I was paralyzed after that,” Ruelas said.

Of course, none of this might have mattered. Nelson, who once went eight years and 19 fights without a loss, had already beaten Ruelas in their earlier fight in 1993.

“[This loss] is easy to accept,” Ruelas said Saturday, “because I know what happened.”

He’d like to be back in the ring by February. His first choice for an opponent? Azumah Nelson.

If that unlikely match happens, be sure of one thing. Ruelas won’t be eating spaghetti the day of the fight.