Ruelas stepping back into the ring

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999 | 9:41 a.m.

Every fighter has to someday retire and both Rafael Ruelas and his long-time trainer, Joe Goossen, thought that time had arrived for the former IBF lightweight champion to call it a career last fall.

Hammered by Kostya Tszyu in a fight that was stopped in the ninth round last Aug. 16 in El Paso, Ruelas and Goossen agreed retirement was in order.

The engaging Ruelas, half of a brother combination that emerged from the hard life of Mexico to world-championship status and substantial paydays in America, made his break with the sport and enrolled in college at UCLA. He looked to be out of boxing with a professional record of 52-4 and 42 knockouts.

Well, guess what?

Unable to completely extinguish the lure of the game, Ruelas returned to the gym in the spring and Sunday will fight for the first time in a year when he takes on a rather obscure opponent to headline a boxing card at the New Frontier hotel in Las Vegas.

But he's going it alone, as Goossen withdrew his services as trainer and believes a comeback isn't a wise move.

"It'll be a little weird to be in the ring without Joe," Ruelas said this week by phone from his Studio City, Calif., home. "It'll be strange because I had him there with me all those years.

If Ruelas has anything left in the tank, he should be victorious Sunday as his opponent is the nondescript Hicklet Lau of Miami. Lau is 11-5-1 with six knockouts and has lost three of his last four fights.

Ruelas vs. Lau tops a late-afternoon card that will be televised by the Fox Sports Net. They're scheduled for 10 rounds at 147 pounds.

"I don't know much about him," Ruelas said of Lau, who has fought primarily in Florida and who hasn't faced a known commodity beyond Ben Tackie. "I know he's originally from Cuba and I know he lost to Tackie, and I used to spar with Ben a lot. The only thing I have heard about him is that if he gets hurt, he switches to southpaw."

Replacing Goossen in Ruelas' corner will be Chato Robles, who most recently worked with former light heavyweight champ Reggie Johnson.

Ruelas earned his IBF lightweight title in 1994 with a hard-fought decision victory over Freddie Pendleton and successfully defended it twice before running into Oscar De La Hoya. That fight, May 6, 1995, at Caesars Palace, seemed to expose Ruelas' primary weakness -- a lack of balance -- while catapulting De La Hoya into a superstar.

When Ruelas followed with a decision loss to the so-so George Scott, his career was clearly in reverse. Yet he rebounded to win nine consecutive fights, with Livingstone Bramble the toughest of those opponents, before taking on Tszyu last August.

"After that fight, I thought I would retire," Ruelas said, and he began taking financial administration classes at UCLA. But on second thought, he eventually reconsidered in spite of Goossen believing it's a mistake.

Also on the New Frontier card is local featherweight Augie Sanchez, who is coming off a spring that included his first significant win (over Jorge Paez), the death of his father and a marriage to his trainer's daughter.

Sanchez, 22-1, will take on Nestor Lopez, 19-5, in a 10-round bout that tops the undercard. Also on the schedule is a six-round heavyweight bout between Duncan Dokiwari and Miguel Otero, plus an eight-round super middleweight fight featuring Randie Carver vs. an opponent yet to be determined.