Evan Sanchez may be popular in one town in California, but he hopes his name will become well-known with boxing fans in the United States and abroad.

The unbeaten welterweight will face late-sub Issouf Kinda tonight at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. The six-round bout will precede the main event bout between hard-hitting Vergil Ortiz, Jr. and Samuel Vargas.

Both fights will stream live on DAZN (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).

Sanchez (7-0, 6 knockouts) last fought on February 14 in Anaheim, California, knocking out Daniel Evangelista of Mexico in the second round. Aside from the dominant performance against Evangelista, several family and friends traveled from his hometown of Parlier, California, filling two sections of the lower bowl of the Honda Center.

“It means a lot to me,” Sanchez told BoxingScene over the phone in a recent interview. “There’s not a lot of people that live in Parlier. Maybe about 5,000 people. The fact that they traveled three and a half hours south to (the) Los Angeles (area) to watch me fight means everything to me. Whenever I run in town, they honk at me. It’s great to see how much support I have from people in town.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no fans will be in attendance when Sanchez squares off against Kinda (18-4 1 NC, 7 KOs), who took the fight on less than a week’s notice. The 32-year-old Kinda, who is originally from the African nation of Burkina Faso and now resides in the Bronx, New York, has not fought since losing to Jimmy Williams in August 2017.

The result of the fight was later challenged to a No-Contest by the Mashantucket commission in Connecticut.

Tonight’s fight against Kinda will mark the 22-year-old’s second fight with Golden Boy Promotions. Before the Evangelista fight, Sanchez made a strong impression to those at Golden Boy on November 14 in Los Angeles, knocking out Hector Hernandez at 25 seconds of the opening round.

“(Manager) Joel De La Hoya saw me sparring,” said Sanchez, who is trained by his father, Omar. “He wanted to have Golden Boy see me. I had an amazing performance that night and that’s how I got the contract with Golden Boy, eventually fighting Evangelista.”

“To have someone like Joel De La Hoya sign me means a lot. He’s one of the top-notch managers in boxing. If you can catch his eye, that’s good. Golden Boy is one of the top promoters in boxing and I never thought a few years ago that I would sign a promotional deal with them and with a promoter (in Oscar De La Hoya) that is like an idol to me. I watched when Oscar fought Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and now he’s my promoter. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Sanchez is tall for a welterweight, measuring an even six feet. He is also a southpaw, and while he has a long ways to improve, Sanchez has improved his skill-set thus far.

Sanchez has been fortunate enough to get decent sparring with junior middleweight Danny Valdivia, who recently appeared on the latest season of ‘The Contender.’ Sanchez believes it is making him a better fighter overall.

“I want to see how far I go at 147 pounds before I have to move up in weight to junior middleweight. During the pandemic, I’ve been sparring Valdivia, who loves about 20 miles away in Tulare.”

“I like to go in the ring and fight. I look for the knockout. I can box or brawl. I can make adjustments. I’m not a one-dimensional fighter. I can do a little of everything.”

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing