Tradition Ends: Country Club Curbs Bouts

By RICH TOSCHES

April 29, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Monthly boxing shows at the Country Club in Reseda, a 10-year tradition and the only live bouts available to boxing fans in the Valley, will be halted, according to the president of the Ten Goose Boxing Club in Van Nuys.

Dan Goossen said there still will be occasional bouts at the 1,000-seat nightclub, perhaps three or four a year. But the regular schedule of bouts held on the last Tuesday of each month has ended.

“We’re changing the direction of Ten Goose Boxing,” said Goossen, who helped guide Michael Nunn to the middleweight championship and more recently has guided brothers Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas into championship fights.

“The purpose of the Country Club was to build up our new talent, and we really don’t have that type of situation anymore. We don’t have young kids who we are grooming. Now we have our guys at the level of world title fights and other major fights, and they just can’t fight every month anymore.”

Goossen will begin promoting monthly bouts at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. That 10,000-seat arena is being refurbished and might be available by mid-summer. “The Olympic allows the promotion of world title fights, with its 10,000 seats,” Goossen said. “You just can’t afford to hold world title fights at the Country Club.”

The announcement brings to an end a boxing era in the Valley. Goossen’s monthly shows were nearly always sold out, with fans packing the dark, cozy hall that is regularly used as a nightclub.

“We really had a tremendous run there,” Goossen said. “And we did it just through ticket sales. We had very little help from TV. These type of club fight places don’t last long without TV. I don’t know of another place over the past 10 years that did it like we did it.

“It was never a money-making project. It was a way to keep our fighters busy and let them learn and escalate to the higher levels where there is some money. It was a gamble that paid off.”

The Ruelas brothers, trained by Joe Goossen, a brother of Dan’s, began fighting at the Country Club at 17, more than four years ago. They fought every month in sometimes spectacular bouts. Rafael, now the top-ranked World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation lightweight contender, remembers one round of the nearly 200 he fought at the Country Club.

“Roberto Rios,” he said. “I’ll always remember him. In the first round I was beating him easily, almost had him knocked out, and he hits me with a left hook on the chin and I’m down and dazed. I got up and he charged at me and knocked me down again, just by crashing into me.

“So I get up again and he’s unloading with everything he’s got, and then I nail him and he’s hanging on and the crowd is just going crazy. It was the wildest round of my life.”

Gabriel Ruelas, who recently lost a close decision in a bid to dethrone longtime WBC junior lightweight champion Azumah Nelson, said the end of the monthly shows is painful. “It was a great place,” he said. “Even before we turned pro, when Rafael and I were just kids, I remember Joe Goossen taking us there to watch the fights and saying, ‘Some day you guys might get to fight here.’ That’s all we thought about, getting the chance to fight there.

“It was more than a place to fight. It was like our home. The people we saw there every month were our friends. I’ll always remember it. I already miss it.”

Dan Goossen said he is most proud of the caliber of fan the fights attracted, patrons who came, most of the time, just to watch.

“In 10 years we only had one real fight outside the ring,” Goossen said, smiling. “Unfortunately, the guy had to choose me.”