By Lem Satterfield

Southpaw former Olympian and current junior middleweight prospect Demetrius Andrade, 22-years-old, of Providence, R.I., will pursue his 12th victory without a loss and his ninth knockout on Jan. 7 when he makes his Las Vegas debut against Alberto Herrera (7-1-1, five KOs) of Riverside, Calif., on the undercard of a main event featuring 26-year-old Russian junior middleweight Ruslan Provodnikov (17-0, 11 KOs) against Mauricio Herrera (15-1, seven KOs) at The Cox Pavillion on ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights."

"I've never even been to Las Vegas before, so, yeah, this will be my first time ever being there," said Andrade. "But Vegas is where most of the big fights are, and that's where I want to make my mark on Jan. 7. I want to let everyone know that this is where I belong."

Signed and promoted by Banner Promotions' Artie Pelullo and Star Boxing's Joe DeGuardia  after a highly decorated amateur career, the 6-foot-1 Andrade turned professional in October of 2008 by stopping his first of four straight rivals in four rounds or less.

Pellulo, who also co-promotes champions Sergei Dzinziruk and Dmitry Pirog, sees Andrade as the next star of American boxing.

"Demetrius is only 22 years old, but he has made a very good transition from the amateurs to the pros. So even though he's already 11-0 with eight knockouts, he's still a young guy, and as far as we're concerned, he's on the right path," said Pelullo.

"If everything goes the way that we anticipate that it's going to go, Demetrius is going to be a star for many years to come. Right now, he's going to be the opening bout on ESPN, and this is the first show of the new year, and they chose for him to be in that position. They wanted him on that card, which says a lot about what they think of his skills."

"Let me tell you what [HBO's Sports Senior Vice President] Kery Davis always tells me, and you'll love this. After every conversation that I have with Kery Davis about [Dmitry] Pirog and [Sergei] Dzinziruk and HBO, he tells that they're waiting for Demetrius. That's what he always tells me. They know, like I know, that Demetrius is the next big American star."

Lem Satterfield is the boxing editor at AOL FanHouse and the news editor at BoxingScene.com. To read more from Lem Satterfield, go to AOL FanHouse by Clicking Here.