'Kid Vegas' the forgotten featherweight

There was a good deal of fanfare when Top Rank signed Augie Sanchez to a promotional agreement, in part because the Olympic Box-Off finalist was a Las Vegas high school student at the time.

"Kid Vegas" is how he was billed and after he started fighting professionally he entered the ring with an Elvis-like flair. The hype was easy to ascertain and the belief was that if Sanchez could fight at all, there was money to be made.

That was in 1996.

Today Sanchez sits and wonders. He wonders about Top Rank, he wonders about his future, he wonders how long it will be before he fights again.

And there are no real answers.

"I feel like they're punishing me," he said of Top Rank. "It's like they've said 'Go to the corner' or 'Time out' like you would say to some little kid."

Sanchez, a featherweight, is 16-1 as a pro. But that one loss -- April 18 in Los Angeles -- has had tremendous repercussions.

It wasn't the typical "setback" a young boxer sometimes experiences.

"The guy he lost to was as bad as they get," Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler said Wednesday. "He was absolutely the bottom of the barrel."

That fighter, Kino Rodriguez, came into the ring with a 9-15 record and stopped Sanchez at 2:07 of the opening round.

"Bruce says Augie lost to a bum and I agree," said Juan Sanchez, Augie's father and trainer. "I know how bad the guy was. But let's go on, let's see what he's got."

Realistically, there are three possible routes to travel: Top Rank can temporarily or permanently release Sanchez; it can bring him back "easy" and attempt to rebuild his confidence; or it can push him into a tough fight or a series of tough fights in a "sink or swim" test of strength.

Trampler admits he's uncertain which way to go.

"The truth is, I don't know what to do with him," he said. "Juan came into the office last week and said 'My kid has to fight' and I agree with him. But we don't have a lot of dates and I have a ton of guys who do have to fight, and they're guys who didn't get knocked out in one round."

He added that one thing he wouldn't do is overmatch Sanchez.

"It's not my style to take advantage of someone who may be speaking emotionally," he said. "I wouldn't put somebody like Augie in over his head."

But what, precisely, does Sanchez have, and what qualifies as overmatching him when he is beaten by a Kino Rodriguez?

"I've thought all along his chin wasn't there," Trampler said. "It's almost like Augie was always an accident waiting to happen."

While Juan Sanchez says his son's contract with Top Rank extends to May, Trampler said Top Rank has the contractual right to release the fighter any time he suffers a loss.

"We could release him, but the best idea might be to have him fight on something like a Bam card at The Orleans," he said. "That way he could get his feet back on the ground."

Another possibility is to put Sanchez on a Top Rank show tentatively scheduled for Oct. 3 in Las Vegas.

But Sanchez, contrary to what he and his father had hoped, will not be on Top Rank's Aug. 15 card in Los Angeles.

"He's ready to fight," Juan Sanchez said. "I don't know how long we're supposed to wait. It's like they've forgotten about him.

"I do know I'm not happy with Top Rank at all."

That's a markedly opposed viewpoint from 1996 and Augie's trumpeted signing with the Las Vegas-based promotional firm.

"It's been hard," Sanchez said. "I guess this is teaching me patience, which is one thing I was lacking.

"But I feel like I can be a top fighter and I'm ready to fight anybody. It gets old fighting the bums they were giving me, and when you fight those kind of guys you never really know what to expect.

"I'd rather be fighting some quality guys."

On one hand, he's the typically anxious 20 year old who is uncertain about his future. Unlike most young men his age, however, there are concerns that his best days in his dream occupation may already be behind him.

archive