Last man standing

Dean Juipe

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.

The card has been sliced, diced and shuffled in recent weeks, so much so that it barely resembles its original incarnation.

Yet through all the changes for the Regent Las Vegas show scheduled for Saturday, there has been one constant: the presence of Augie Sanchez.

With a laugh, he says that should be good enough to entice the area's boxing fans.

"Even when the main event was (Chris) Byrd and (Lawrence) Clay-Bey, I really thought I was the main event," Sanchez said. "I think the majority of people will be coming to see me."

He has a point.

Having noticeably improved in recent months, Sanchez, who is still only 22 years old, is beginning to make some headway in the featherweight division and is ranked No. 10 by the WBC. He's 25-1 with 22 knockouts as he comes into a 10-round fight with Jorge Paredes, a late replacement for the initially announced -- and visa-troubled -- Enrique Jupiter.

Byrd and Clay-Bey are also off the card, replaced by fellow heavyweights Robert Davis and Keith McKnight. Byrd was allowed to withdraw to take a better fight with Vitali Klitschko in Germany, while Clay-Bey needed eye surgery.

Through all the program revisions, Sanchez has kept plugging in the gym and says he's ready for Paredes, who is 17-5-4 and coming off a split-decision win over former world champion Kennedy McKinney.

"I saw a tape of that fight," Sanchez said. "Paredes looked OK. We might have a good fight."

As opposed to his most recent fight, at least someone will see Sanchez in the ring this time. Fighting Jan. 29 on the Mike Tyson vs. Julius Francis undercard in Manchester, England, Sanchez's fight with Didier Schaeffer actually began before the doors to the arena were open.

"No one saw me," Sanchez said of the fight, which ended in his favor with a fifth-round knockout. "It was strange. There was no crowd, so it was completely quiet."

For this outing with Paredes, Sanchez says he has a target in mind.

"I'm planning on going to the body more than I usually do," he said. "In the tape with McKinney it looked like Paredes can probably take a good shot to the head, because McKinney hit him a few times and it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Here again, I hit harder than McKinney, but I'm still going to go to the body."

Sharing the bill with Sanchez for the outdoor card are Davis and McKnight, who were recruited to replace Byrd and Clay-Bey. Davis is 20-0 with 12 knockouts, while McKnight is 38-2 with 25 KOs.

"If everything comes out right for me with this fight, maybe I can move into the top 10," Davis said by phone from his Arizona training camp. "I've seen McKnight a couple of times and he has a pretty good jab, but I'll try to do my best. I'll be looking for a knockout, but, if not, I'm ready to go the (12-round) distance."

Davis had been training for an April 6 fight in Worley, Idaho, with journeyman Luis Monaco. He's coming off a Feb. 18 decision win over Las Vegan Charles Shufford in Atlantic City, and had an earlier win in Las Vegas this year when he took out Wesley Martin in two rounds on the Shane Mosley undercard Jan. 22 at the Hard Rock.

"I was cautious with Shufford," Davis said. "Part of my mind wanted to try and take him out after I had him down in the second round, but part of me didn't want to take any chances."

Davis, 28, is a U.S. Army veteran who didn't start fighting until he was in the service. He was 19-5 as an amateur.

His opponent, McKnight, needs a significant win to avoid losing some of the luster off his respectable record. As it is, he is beating has-beens like Iran Barkley and Big Foot Martin, but he lost the last time he stepped up in competition and took on Obed Sullivan.

Also scheduled: Friday Ahunanya, 9-0, vs. Agustin Corpus, 8-6-2, eight rounds, heavyweights; Jamal Hodges, 1-0-1, vs. Juan Polo Valenzuela, 3-2, four rounds, lightweights; Ramon Ledon, 13-1-1, vs. Mark Saurez, 14-0, six rounds, junior welterweights; and a four-round women's bout between Freeda Foreman and Laquanda Landers in which each is making her pro debut. First bell is 6:30 p.m.