Heavyweight Golota joins Whitaker for desert training

      Things are busy at the "Main Events East" camp in Chandler, Ariz.
      Not only is World Boxing Council welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker training at the Sheraton San Marcos Resort, but heavyweight Andrew Golota arrived there Friday.
      Whitaker is training for his showdown with undefeated Oscar De La Hoya on April 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
      Golota joined the Main Events camp to prepare for his scheduled 10-rounder against Ray Mercer on May 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
      Golota and his trainer Lou Duva will be in New York on Tuesday to formally announce the fight, which will be televised by HBO.
      Golota, a native of Poland now living in Chicago, is best known for his two disqualifications against Riddick Bowe for repeated low blows.
      Duva said Golota worked out at a health club Friday night, ran at 6 a.m. Saturday and went eight rounds on the bags in the afternoon.
      "This guy is a stickler for training," Duva said.
      Mercer is coming off a victory over Tim Witherspoon on Dec. 14. Witherspoon will be featured against an opponent to be determined on the Mercer-Golota undercard.
      -- MAIN EVENTS PROSPECTS -- Whitaker has an outstanding team of young sparring partners, including 1996 U.S. Olympic welterweight Fernando Vargas of Oxnard, Calif., Zabdiel Judah of New York, who lost in the U.S. Olympic box-offs, and Vernon Forrest, a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.
      Vargas will make his pro debut on a March 25 card in his hometown. Judah is 5-0 as a pro.
      Also in camp is Whitaker's close friend and 1984 U.S. Olympic teammate Mark Breland, a former World Boxing Association welterweight champion.
      -- LASPADA WINS -- Cruiserweight Brian LaSpada of Las Vegas captured the North American Boxing Organization title by stopping Egerton Marcus, a member of the 1988 Canadian Olympic team, in the seventh round on a card in Tempe, Ariz., last week.
      LaSpada, formerly of Buffalo, N.Y., also holds the North American Boxing Federation cruiserweight championship.
      -- SANCHEZ IDLE -- Unbeaten featherweight Augie Sanchez of Las Vegas had been scheduled to fight on a Top Rank Inc. card Friday night at the Veterans' Coliseum in Phoenix, but his opponent pulled out of the fight.
      Sanchez, a senior at Cheyenne High School, will next fight on an April 4 card at The Orleans that will be televised on the Telemundo Spanish-language network. Sanchez is 6-0.
      The main event of the April 4 card is a scheduled 10-rounder between Mexico's Erik Morales, the No. 1-ranked WBC super bantamweight, against Javier Lucas, also of Mexico.
      -- TROP CARD -- Top Rank moved the ABC-televised afternoon card on April 12 to the Tropicana Pavilion instead of the Thomas & Mack.
      Top Rank decided not to try to hold it in the same venue as the De La Hoya-Whitaker card the same night.
      The main event of the ABC card will be Raul Marquez of Houston meeting Anthony Stephens of Metarie, La., for the vacant International Boxing Federation junior middleweight championship.
      -- LALONDE BACK -- Canadian light heavyweight Donny Lalonde, who was stopped in the ninth round by Sugar Ray Leonard at Caesars Palace in 1988, is making a comeback.
      Lalonde will appear on the April 9 card promoted by Top Rank at the Aladdin that will be televised on DirecTV. The 37-year-old former WBC light heavyweight champion is 37-4.
     
      Royce Feour's boxing notes are published Sunday. He may be reached at 383-0354 or by fax at 383-4676.