Chavez, Gonzalez prepare for showdown with undercard bouts

      Former World Boxing Council champions Julio Cesar Chavez and Miguel Angel Gonzalez are scheduled in tuneup fights tonight on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield heavyweight championship fight at the MGM Grand Garden.
      Promoter Don King has Chavez and Gonzalez, both of Mexico, in safe fights for a planned showdown later this year for the WBC super lightweight championship vacated in April when Oscar De La Hoya captured the WBC welterweight championship.
      Chavez, a former WBC super lightweight champion, will face little-known Larry La Coursiere of Hastings, Minn., in a scheduled 10-rounder at the 146-pound weight limit.
      Chavez is 99-2-1 while La Coursiere is 22-6-1.
      La Coursiere has been stopped in three of his last six bouts. His last two bouts have been six-round decision victories in Red Wing, Minn.
      Chavez, 35, has two victories since being stopped in the fourth round by De La Hoya a year ago at Caesars Palace. Chavez's purse is $900,000, while La Coursiere is receiving $20,000.
      Chavez said he doesn't know anything about La Coursiere.
      "Not at all," Chavez said. "After all of my experience, I do not have any fear in the ring."
      Gonzalez, a former WBC lightweight champ, will meet Roberto Granciosa of Samar, Philippines, in another scheduled 10-rounder.
      Gonzalez, of Mexico City, is 41-1, while Granciosa is 31-17-3.
      Granciosa has lost three of his last five and five of his last nine bouts.
      Gonzalez, 26, is coming off a decision loss to De La Hoya for the WBC super lightweight title Jan. 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
      Gonzalez's purse is $40,000 and Granciosa will get $16,000.
      The undercard will include one championship fight.
      Lonnie Bradley of New York will defend his World Boxing Organization middleweight title against John Williams of Bradenton, Fla. Bradley, 29, will be making the sixth defense of his WBO 160-pound title. He won the title with a decision over David Mendez in 1995 in Primm.
      Since that time, he successfully defended the title with four victories. In his last bout, he retained the title by getting a draw against Otis Grant on March 4 at the Aladdin. Bradley, 25-0-1, has a purse of $50,000. Williams, who will get $20,000, is 18-4.
      Christy Martin of Orlando, Fla., has returned to promoter King's fold and will fight for the first time since the undercard of the first Tyson-Holyfield fight. She faces Andrea DeShong of Mingo Junction, Ohio, in a scheduled eight-round lightweight bout.
      In other bouts:
      Robert Garcia of Oxnard, Calif., vs. Angel Aldama of Mexico, junior lightweights, 10 rounds.
      "Bronco" Billy Wright of West Jordan, Utah, vs. Martin Lopez of Mexico, heavyweights, eight rounds.
      Nate Jones of Chicago vs. Willie Chapman of Ogden, Utah, heavyweights, four rounds.
      Augustin N'Goy of Ivory Coast vs. Clement Haasan of Houston, heavyweights, six rounds.