Thursday, April 23, 1998 | 9:35 a.m.
DEAN JUIPE is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His office phone number is 259-4084. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]
Matched with a fighter who had won only nine of 24 bouts, Augie Sanchez was expected to steamroll Kino Rodriguez and add to his 16-0 record.
The Las Vegas featherweight had been beating up on guys like Rodriguez for two years, supposedly gaining valuable experience and building the type of record and credentials it takes to slide into a title fight.
Forty seconds into their Saturday fight in Los Angeles, Sanchez had Rodriguez on the floor. A minute and a half later, however, the scheduled eight-round fight was over and it was Rodriguez with his hand raised in victory.
"It was a devastating loss," Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler said of Sanchez losing by technical knockout at 2:07 of the opening round. "When you lose to a guy like that, it's not something you can sweep under the rug or pretend didn't happen."
The fight was stopped with Sanchez "rubber legged," according to Trampler. "The referee looked in his eyes and decided it wasn't worth it to let him go on. Augie had gone in for the kill but Rodriguez tagged him and that was that."
No one associated with Sanchez, including Trampler, anticipated the loss.
"Everyone was pretty distraught afterward," he said. "It's like the whole world had caved in."
The setback raises the question of whether Sanchez is progressing as a fighter, and/or whether he can really fight.
"It could be (that he isn't that good)," Trampler said. "But look at it this way: When Oscar De La Hoya got knocked down by Narciso Valenzuela (in De La Hoya's 11th pro fight), what would have happened to his career if he hadn't gotten up?
"But he did get up. You can always come back in boxing."
No local showdown
Even if Sanchez hadn't lost last week, his proposed fight with fellow Las Vegan Floyd Mayweather has been permanently shelved, Trampler said.
"It's not going to happen," he said. "Augie wants to stay at 126 pounds and Floyd isn't going to come down from 130. They're not going to fight."
Sanchez, despite his loss, is aiming for veteran Orlando Canizales by the end of the year.
Mayweather, who upped his record to 16-0 on that same Los Angeles card where Sanchez lost, is intent on facing WBC champ Genaro Hernandez in September.
"I've never liked that fight for him," Trampler said. "Floyd's father wasn't too happy when I told them that, but I'm just one voice.
"Hernandez is the toughest junior lightweight in the world. If you're going to fight him, you'd better be ready. And I'm not sure Floyd has the experience for that yet."
Mayweather will have at least one fight in the interim, June 13 in Atlantic City when he headlines an ESPN-televised card against Tony Pep.
De La Hoya-Chavez
One September fight that is on for sure is De La Hoya vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Sept. 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center. Caesars Palace will sponsor the fight and will formally announce it at a press conference today.
De La Hoya is 27-0 and is expected to have an easy time with Patrick Charpentier June 13 in El Paso. He may also have an easy time with Chavez, who, despite his 100-2-2 record, is coming off a draw with Miguel Angel Gonzalez and was taken apart by De La Hoya in a June 7, 1996, fight at Caesars.
In that fight, a cut opened over Chavez's left eye in the first round and De La Hoya finished him off at 2:37 of the fourth.
"Chavez took this fight for two reasons," Trampler said. "First, the money will be much greater (than it would be for the proposed rematch with Gonzalez). And he says he didn't feel great at 140 pounds -- although I think even if he could make weight, he'd take the money and fight Oscar."
De La Hoya vs. Chavez will be at 147 pounds.
Taylor terminated
Former Olympic gold medalist and two-time former world champion Meldrick Taylor has been denied a boxing license in New Jersey and his professional career is effectively over. Taylor, 31, had been scheduled to face onetime Las Vegan Lonnie Smith May 16 in Atlantic City.
"I'm trying to protect the man," New Jersey commissioner Larry Hazzard said. "Certainly we can allow for some slippage, but Taylor, at this point, has really gone below the point where he should be fighting.
"If he was just a club fighter throughout his career, that would be one thing and the standard would be lower. But at one time he had to be one of the best fighters in the world. Even allowing for a reasonable amount of dissipation of his abilities, he's not the same guy he once was."
Taylor is not banned from fighting nationwide although it is unlikely another state would license him in light of New Jersey's decision. He last fought in November of 1996 and, in financial trouble, he was to have received a badly needed $15,000 for taking on Smith.
Aside from his championships, Taylor is best remembered for a March 17, 1990, fight in Las Vegas against Chavez in which referee Richard Steele stopped the bout with two seconds remaining in the 12th round. Chavez was awarded the victory in a fight in which he was losing on the judges' scorecards.
Quick hits
Super bantamweight Wayne McCullough of Las Vegas, fighting for the first time in 15 months, gained a 10-round decision win over Oscar Antonio Salas last Friday in Connecticut. Each of the judges gave McCullough all 10 rounds. "My reach was a half inch off," he said of failing to knock out Salas, a late, late replacement who is 32 years old and 20-14 as a professional. McCullough is 21-1 and looking to fight again next month. ... IBF featherweight champ Hector Lizarraga takes on ex-champ Manuel Medina Friday in San Jose and his Las Vegas-based adviser has his fingers crossed. "Medina's still got a little left," Duke Durden said. "I just hope he doesn't have too much left. Hector should win -- he hits to the body as good as anyone -- but this could be a tough fight." Lizarraga has a July mandatory with Victor Polo although Durden is pushing his man for a big-money fight with Naseem Hamed. ... UNLV is looking to form a club boxing team that would begin competing in the year 2000. Local pro Skipper Kelp will serve as coach. Currently there are 27 club teams in the country, including one at Nevada-Reno. ... The WBC and WBA have agreed to conform their rules and will attempt to have their champions face each other on a regular basis. ... Pernell Whitaker, who was to have faced Ike Quartey Saturday in Las Vegas until he tested positive for cocaine, entered rehab and the fight was cancelled, remains in denial about his drug problems. "I haven't done anything wrong," he told USA Today this week. ... Former heavyweight champ Razor Ruddock fought for the first time in 34 months last week when a mere 400 people paid to see him defeat someone named Brian Yates in Columbus, Ind.
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