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By Royce Feour
Review-Journal
Undefeated Las Vegas featherweight Augie Sanchez will go for his seventh straight victory Friday night on the undercard of the The Orleans' first boxing card.
Sanchez, a Cheyenne High School senior, will meet Mexico's Juanita Rivera on a Top Rank Inc. card, which the Telemundo Spanish-language cable network will televise outside Southern Nevada.
Sanchez, 19, has five knockouts in his first six victories since turning pro last summer. Rivera is 4-3.
Friday's main event will match unbeaten super bantamweight Erik Morales of Tijuana, Mexico, and Concepion Velasquez of Mexico City in a scheduled 10-rounder.
Sanchez's amateur career was capped by defeating Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the final of the 1996 United States Olympic Boxing Trials in Oakland, Calif.
But Mayweather came back to defeat Sanchez twice in the U.S. Olympic Box-Offs in Athens, Ga.
Mayweather, a bronze-medal winner in last year's Olympics, was signed by Top Rank. Mayweather recently moved to Las Vegas from Grand Rapids, Mich.
Sanchez was a U.S. Olympic team alternate but turned pro.
-- MAIN EVENTERS -- Morales, 20, is 24-0 with 19 knockouts. He is the World Boxing Council's No. 1 122-pound contender.
The journeyman Velasquez is 21-17-1.
The semi-main pits Diego "Chico" Corrales of Phoenix against Steve Quinonez of Desert Hot Springs, Calif., for a minor title -- the International Boxing Association Continental junior-lightweight championship.
Corrales is 13-0, and Quinones is 13-1-1.
-- ANOTHER PREP -- Another high school student who turned pro is on Friday's card.
Welterweight Isreal Escandon, a senior at Chandler (Ariz.) High School, will appear in a scheduled four-rounder against an undetermined opponent. Escandon is 5-0.
-- CAESARS CARD -- Forum Boxing of Inglewood, Calif., and Caesars Palace are close to finalizing an April 26 card headlined by former International Boxing Federation featherweight champion Jorge Paez of Mexico.
Paez will meet Gerald Gray in a scheduled 10-round main event.
Paez was considered washed up by many a couple of years ago but has rebounded. He won five of his six last fights.
Paez's only loss in that streak was to Julian Wheeler at Caesars Tahoe last year. But he defeated Wheeler at the Forum Jan. 13.
-- PHILLIPS GETS SHOT -- Las Vegan Vince Phillips gets a shot at Kostya Tszyu's IBF welterweight championship May 31 at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J.
Tszyu, a Russian living in Australia, is 18-0-1. Phillips is 35-3.
The fight will be telecast by HBO.
-- RING TALK -- Pedro Fernandez will have promoter Don King and former champion Thomas Hearns as guests on his "Ring Talk" radio show tonight from 8-10 on KRLV-AM (1340).
Royce Feour's boxing notes are published Sunday. He can be reached at 383-0354 or by fax at 383-4676.
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