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THE MANDALAY BAY UNDERCARD

Australia's Frank Slavin and Venezuela's Jose Luis Garcia have almost certainly guaranteed that their series seven clash will decide who finishes in second place behind Rocky Marciano in Group One of the 1st Defense tournament.

Both men scored victories tonight to start the Mandalay Bay event, with Garcia dominating the winless 64th and last seed in the tournament Oscar Pharo before Slavin found more resistance than expected from the winless Mike Schreck.

Garcia floored Pharo in round four on the way to a comfortable 59-54, 58-55, 59-54 unanimous decision win, improving his record to 4-2(1). The Venezuelan said afterwards that it was a nice change to be in a bout where he felt in total control.

Slavin achieved his third consecutive victory but not before knocking Schreck out fourteen seconds from the final bell. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Schreck has been one of the worst fighters in the entire HBF while accumulating an 0-5 record, being KO'd four times inside of three rounds along the way. But against Slavin he finally showed some fight and was actually leading 48-47 on all three cards after round five. But Slavin knocked him down twice in the final stanza, Schreck failing to beat the count on the second occasion. Slavin is now an impressive 5-1(2), not bad for a guy seeded #48 in a 64-man tournament.

"He really made me work for it," said the amiable Aussie. "Showed a lot more than I expected him to. It was a nice workout but it's great to get another win."

Slavin and Garcia are sitting in 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the group, with Tony Galento and Scott LeDoux right behind them at 3-2. However, Galento's chances of progressing will be extinguished unless he can pull off what would be the biggest upset in the HBF's short history against "The Brockton Blockbuster" Rocky Marciano on Wednesday night in London. LeDoux faces a much easier examination against Stan Ward, but even if he wins that fight he'll be in the exact same situation as Galento in five weeks time when he steps in the ring against Marciano.

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The World Championship tournament's 121st seed Arturo Godoy recorded his first professional victory against Texas native Johnny Boudreaux in a fight that fluctuated between mediocrity and excitement. The Chilean took a 58-53, 57-54, 58-53 unanimous decision, sending Boudreaux to the canvas in the 2nd, 5th and 6th rounds.

Texas-born Boudreaux showed glimpses of promise, especially in rounds one and three. But those late knockdowns spelled the end of any chance he had of winning the bout. Godoy is now 1-3-2 while Boudreaux is still looking for his first victory at 0-5-1.

Fighting in the evening's fourth contest, Alabama's Lem Franklin pitched a shutout against Oakland native Roger Rischer. Franklin was awarded every round on all three judge's cards, putting Rischer on the canvas right on the bell to end round four and taking the verdict by scores of 60-53 (x3).

Franklin is a fellow who has shown guts and determination in each of his contests and this victory against Rischer was his second in a row after he lost all of his first four bouts by unanimous decision.

Rischer (1-4-1) was never in it, Franklin simply outworking, outhustling and outmuscling him throughout. Franklin will fight Godoy to complete his stay in the World Championship tournament and will certainly gain himself a birth in the upcoming Continental Americas Championship tournament if he can secure a third consecutive victory.

VINCENNES HAS PLENTY TO SAY

Prior to the commencement of tonight's event, HBF President Michael Vincennes was interviewed by ESPN's panelists and spoke on a number of subjects, including:

* Plans for African and Asia/Oceania Championship tournaments

"I've been discussing it with my advisors recently and we feel it's important to get these underway sooner rather than later," said Vincennes. "It's something we have promised and something we are determined to follow through with. It's always been our goal to have regional champions in the four major territories of the world: the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. There aren't a huge amount of fighters from Asia and Africa competing in the World Championship and 1st Defense tournaments, so it will require us to hold future auditions. It's likely that these will be limited to South Africa, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand for the purposes of these tournaments. I can envision them starting shortly after our other regional ones do, although their duration might not be as long."

* The format for the Junior-Heavyweight Championship tournament

"Yes, it's still two years away, but we've decided on an exciting format for it," said the federation president enthusiastically. "We'll be staging a 32-man tournament that will be different from our current Heavyweight World Championship tournament. It will involve eight groups of four fighters competing in a double-elimination stage. Two fighters from each group will qualify for the second stage which will be a 16-man single-elimination knockout stage. This means that the eventual winner will have fought six or seven fights to be crowned the Junior-Heavyweight Champion."

* The completion of the federation's recent Qualifying League auditions

"We are extremely happy with the outcome of the auditions," Vincennes said. "We've discovered some fantastically talented fighters, such as Romy Alvarez down in Florida, Mike Hanson in Indianapolis and Scott Mundt over in Germany, amongst a bunch of others. This Qualifying League tournament is going to be fiercely contested, I tell you. It's something that our current top flight competitors will have to keep an eye on also, because in a year or two some of these guys in the QL could be nipping at their heels."

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