Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 10:13 a.m.
Anyone in Las Vegas who has followed boxing for the past decade or so is apt to have at least a vague familiarity with the Shufford family.
Horace Shufford was once a top-ranked welterweight who fought regularly at the Showboat and his nephew, Charles, was an amateur star here before launching his pro career in 1996.
Friday at the Hard Rock hotel-casino, Charles Shufford will step from his usual position of filling out the undercard and will co-headline a seven-fight show promoted by Cedric Kushner. Shufford, 27, will face Derrick Banks in a heavyweight fight scheduled for 10 rounds.
That bout shares the top of the bill with another 10-round heavyweight pairing: Ed Mahone vs. Mario Cawley.
"I'm starting to move up," Shufford said of his featured position at the Hard Rock, which will hold the fight card in its Joint nightclub. "I think I'm ready for it."
Ready or not, Shufford will be under the gun to produce. While his record is a respectable 13-1 with seven knockouts, he is coming off a 10-round decision loss to Robert Davis in which he was knocked down in the second round and didn't win a round on the judges' cards.
It was a fight in which every round resembled its predecessor, and that was bad news for Shufford.
"He out-hustled me," Shufford admitted Wednesday at the final prefight press conference. "I still think I could whip him, but I just didn't fight him right. I kept thinking during the fight that I could knock him out, but I went about it all wrong and kept throwing just one punch instead of some combinations.
"That's something the loss taught me."
He needs to rebound and defeat Banks, or suffer the consequences of being labeled a journeyman.
"I'm looking to look good against him," Shufford said of his opponent, who is 19-5-1 with seven KOs. "I'm hoping I can stop him, but I know I'll have to work to do it."
Banks, 28, is also coming off a loss, having dropped a decision to Monte Barrett in January. He will be fighting for the fifth time in Las Vegas and, thus far, has yet to really be impressive.
Shufford has the same problem to some extent. This will be his fourth pro fight in his hometown, but the caliber of his opponents in those bouts has been questionable.
Nonetheless, he feels he's making progress and is content with the direction his career has taken him.
"I don't think that loss hurt me that much," he said of his Feb. 18 setback to Davis in Atlantic City. "I've been learning and gaining experience. I'm not rushing anything, but I'm starting to fight some 'name' guys now.
"I want to get up there with the leading heavyweights and if I keep working I think I can do it."
A graduate of Eldorado High School, Shufford was once a regular on amateur cards at the Golden Gloves Gym and reached the semi-final round of the 1996 Olympic Trials. A big man at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, he's regarded as a fighter with some natural ability but with an inclination to coast at times.
He said he'll be inspired to step into the ring at the Hard Rock.
"I love fighting at home like this," he said. "I'd like to do it more often because it's really exciting. It puts a little pressure on me, but nothing extra."
There was no betting line up in the casino's sports book on Shufford's fight, nor on the co-main event. In the latter match, Mahone, 21-1-2, will attempt to right his career after losing to Vitaly Klitschko last October in Germany, while Cawley -- a late replacement for the injured Jimmy Thunder -- has lost his last three fights and has seen his record drop to 21-3.
Also scheduled: Samson Pouha, 19-4, vs. Louis Monaco, 11-20-3, eight rounds, heavyweights; David Defiagbon, 11-0, vs. Tim Pollard, 6-6-2, six rounds, heavyweights; Adam Flores, 7-3, vs. Otis Tisdale, 10-4-1, six rounds, heavyweights; Bill Zumbrun, 1-0, vs. an opponent yet to be determined, four rounds, heavyweights; and a six-round women's super middleweight bout between Suzi Taylor, 9-2-1, and Mary Ann Almaguer, 10-3.
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