BOXING : A SPORT HAUNTED BY DEATH.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal

It's somewhere in every fighter's mind: the possibility of death in the ring. Rarely does it become reality. When it does, though, it grips everyone in boxing - painfully so for those connected to the fighters - and only grudgingly lets go.

It happened a year ago today on a surrealistic evening in Las Vegas, when Gabriel Ruelas delivered the horrible beating that resulted in the death of Jimmy Garcia.

Thirteen days later, Garcia, only 22 and several thousand miles from his home in Barranquilla, Colombia, died in a Las Vegas hospital of a brain hemorrhage, a numbing tragedy that rocked the lives of Garcia's family, Ruelas and his family and so many others.

A year later, with the intense pain having evolved into permanent, yet easier-to-bear scars, nagging questions linger:

Could it have been avoided? Who, if anyone, was at fault? Should rules and/or equipment be changed to minimize the chances of death? Or is death, as wasteful as it seems, an inevitable part of this brutal sport?

Under the rules and common practice in Nevada, no, Garcia's death could not have been avoided, which also answers the second question: No one is to blame.

All medical personnel was in place. Doctors were at ringside, ambulances were at the ready. Garcia was operated on within 36 minutes of the time he collapsed in his corner.

The referee that night, Mitch Halpern, has been criticized for failing to stop the one-sided bout earlier than the 11th round, when he finally stepped in to end the massacre. After all, Garcia took hundreds of damaging blows and landed precious few of his own.

Halpern isn't to blame, though: He did his job as it was laid out for him.

Normally, a bout is stopped only when a prostrate fighter is counted out, when a fighter is hurt or cut too badly to continue or - and this is key - when a fighter cannot defend himself.

Garcia was never cut or seriously hurt during the fight. He never left his feet.

``I never saw him hurt,'' Ruelas said. ``I didn't think he was hurt when (Halpern) stopped it.''

And Garcia never stopped fighting. He was unable to hurt Ruelas, who walked through his relatively feeble punches, but Garcia took the then-world champion's best shots and never stopped throwing his own.

Halpern had no choice but to let the fight continue until the very end, when, finally, Garcia seemed to wilt under a barrage of punches and was clearly through.

``No one watched the fight as many times as I did. I watched it hundreds of times,'' Halpern said. ``I studied it, looking for any sign of danger, any time I thought he was in danger, any time he was hurt.

``His hands were up and he was throwing punches the entire time. . . . To this day, I would not have changed anything. I've discussed it with doctors and I truly believe it couldn't have been helped.''

Again, he's right in terms of common practice. However, the practices could be changed.

As it is, the Nevada Athletic Commission, which oversees boxing in the state, does not consider a fighter's chances of victory when determining whether to stop a fight.

It should.

Yes, Garcia was brave, he withstood tremendous punishment and continued to fight back. However, it was obvious he had almost no chance of winning. His only hope was one big, knockout punch, which was a 1-in-a-1,000 shot - odds too great when a fighter's health is concerned.

Halpern and Marc Ratner, director of the commission, point to the George Foreman-Michael Moorer fight, in which Foreman won the world title with one punch after he had fallen well behind on points. In other words, they don't want to deprive a fighter of his chance at victory and the spoils that go with it.

This is a well-meaning sentiment but it doesn't wash: It's just not worth the risk.

And there's precedent on which to base such a change in practice. In California, a fight can be stopped if the referee or a physician believes it is too one-sided even if neither fighter is hurt, according to Richard DeCuir, director of the California Athletic Commission.

``The same thing can happen in California tomorrow,'' said DeCuir,. ``. . . At the same time, you're likely to see a fight stopped sooner in California.''

Neither the Nevada nor California commissions have made rule changes since Garcia's death. The only difference, both commissioners said, is increased awareness of the sport's dangers.

However, they are always looking for ways to reduce the probability of disaster.

What might seem like obvious solutions - mandatory head gear and bigger gloves - won't do much, if any good, several doctors agreed. It's the jerking of the head and the jostling of the brain upon impact of a punch that does the damage.

There is hope, though.

For example, Nevada has discussed the possibility of monitoring drastic weight loss. Garcia lost 23 pounds in the weeks preceding the fight to make weight, according to his father Manuel Garcia Sr., although no evidence suggests it relates to the hemorrhage.

Several states, including California, require fighters to take neurological tests before licensing in an effort to detect brain damage. And, Ratner said, neurosurgeons are looking ``as we speak'' for other ways to make boxing safer.

``Maybe someday medical tests will be able to tell us definitively who's at risk for these tragedies,'' Ratner said.

The bottom line is this, however: Fighters are going to die in the ring as long as the sport exists.

There have been 39 ``notable'' boxing deaths since 1961, according to an Associated Press report, three since Garcia died: South Korean Lee Tong-choon in September, James Murray of Scotland in October and Australian Lance Hobson on Tuesday.

Statistically, in light of the tens of thousands of fights the past 35 years, 39 deaths are clear evidence fatalities are rare.

Still, anyone who steps through the ropes could be next.

``To say that it won't happen again is foolish,'' DeCuir said. ``More than likely it will. All you can do is take as many precautions as you can.''

MEMO: Staff Writer Michael Rosenthal's boxing column appears Mondays in the Daily News.