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Corrales Hungry for More

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A junior-lightweight title fight will be one of five bouts on the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya-Sugar Shane Mosley fight June 17 at Staples Center.

Diego Corrales (31-0 with 25 knockouts) will defend his International Boxing Federation 130-pound championship against Justin Juuko (34-3-2, 25 KOs).

If he beats Juuko, Corrales wants to to fight World Boxing Council junior-lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

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“That’s the next step for me--unifying the title,” said Corrales, of Sacramento. “I’m just at a point where I want to see who the dominant person is in this division, who’s in charge. If it’s me, great. I would think that [Mayweather] would want to know who that person is too. If the fight comes off, I’ll be happy and I’m sure a lot of people in the boxing community would be happy too.”

Juuko, of Uganda, was knocked out by Mayweather in the ninth round as a last-minute replacement in Las Vegas last May 22.

Also on the undercard, Erik Morales, the WBC super-bantamweight champion from Tijuana, will move up to the featherweight division to fight Mike Juarez (22-8-1, 9 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Morales (36-0, 28 KOs) is coming off a split-decision win over fellow Mexican fighter Marco Antonio Barrera on Feb. 19 in Las Vegas.

Promoter Bob Arum said that he is looking at a Morales-Barrera rematch for Los Angeles in January.

Australian welterweight Shannan Taylor (26-0-1, 17 KOs) will make his U.S. debut on the undercard against an undetermined opponent.

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A couple of novelty fights round out the card with super-heavyweight Eric “Butterbean” Esch (53-1-2, 40 KOs) and Mia Rosales St. John (16-0, 9 KOs) scheduled for four-rounders.

The card will be available on pay-per-view.

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