By Steve Kim

While it's Mike Alvarado who is the main event performer and Michael Conlan the real headliner for the card that's taking place in Chicago on Friday night at the UIC Pavilion, two other Top Rank prospects, Egis Kavaliauskas and Alex Saucedo, are also worth mentioning.

In due time, both could be fighting for titles.

'The Mean Machine' Kavaliauskas (16-0, 13 KO's) from Lithuania is a hard-hitting welterweight but thus far has been relegated to fighting on non-televised spots on various undercards. At what point does he start to perform on bigger platforms?

His manager, Egis Klimas, stated to BoxingScene.com - "I have asked but the answer was always,'Yes, we're working on it, we like Kavaliauskas.' The time is going to come. As you know I am very patient and he's already on that stage where I can say,'we don't have to rush him' but I think he'll be ready by the end of the year and it's up to the promoters to make the move."

Kavaliauskas is matched with Daniel Echeverria (19-4, 17 KO's) and the hope is that by the end of this year or the early part of 2018, he can be in the mix for a welterweight title.

"Well, that's the plan,'' said Klimas, who then explained - "he was injured, he had a broken foot and hadn't been the ring for a long time and we had one fight(on April 8th) to come back and now we're going to do this one and the plan is to put him on a big stage."

Klimas, best known for managing Sergey Kovalev and Vasyl Lomachenko, believes he has another future world champion on his hands.

"Everybody in my gym has the ability to be, it depends on how we can handle it and I think we're handling it very well. He's a hard worker, he has talent. If you combine that together, hard work and talent - you can reach your life goals," Klimas said.

Saucedo (24-0, 15 KO's) faces Wilberth Lopez (18-7, 13 KO's) on this card which is being televised on UniMas.

"I know he's a young guy, same as me, 22 years old. He's hungry for a victory, he's coming off two straight wins. He has he experience and he's beaten some fighters he wasn't supposed to beat. So it's a dangerous guy, a dangerous opponent," said the 22-year old, who now works with trainer, Abel Sanchez.

"But we had a great camp," continued Saucedo, who is facing his first left-hander. "We were sparring Denis Shafikov, he's left-handed. So we had great sparring up in Big Bear. So I really feel good and ready to put on a show for all the Chicago fans."

Saucedo blew out the faded Johnny Garcia on March 17th at the Theater of Madison Square Garden. It looks like he will compete for his first belt as a 140-pounder. The native of Oklahoma City believes he's getting closer to his first title opportunity.

"I think after this fight, I think I'll be ready for something. We have to get past this fight, first, see how we look. Check out my performances but hopefully after this fight we can look into bigger things," said Saucedo.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.