BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : He Hopes to Embellish Secret Career

He is the man who would be king of the world’s 130-pound fighters, this smiling son of a Los Angeles shoemaker.

But even in his own neighborhood, he is a champion no one knows.

Genaro Hernandez sat at a restaurant table, ate a shrimp cocktail and talked of the long, hard pull that took him from Los Angeles prelim fighter to world title.

Hernandez’s is not among the many names of L.A.-area boxers currently in the headlines.

The brothers Ruelas, Gabe and Rafael, both have major fights coming and have climbed high in the rankings. Yet neither is a champion, as Hernandez is.

Oscar De La Hoya, the East L.A. Olympic gold medalist, had a summer’s worth of headlines. But he hasn’t even turned pro yet.

Hector Lopez, Alex Garcia, Rudy Zavala, Tony Tucker--headliners all, but not one of them a champion.

In the fragmented world of pro boxing--counting only the three major governing bodies, there are 48 “world” champions--only two L.A.-area boxers can claim titles. Michael Nunn, the former middleweight champion from Agoura Hills recently won the WBA super-middleweight title.

And Hernandez is the WBA junior-lightweight champion. He will defend that title in Tokyo next month.

Not only is Hernandez’s title the area’s best-kept boxing secret, his neighbors don’t even know who he is. Hernandez recently moved his wife, Lileana, and 5-month-old daughter, Amanda, to Mission Viejo.

“One of my neighbors knows I’m a fighter, but he doesn’t know a thing about boxing,” Hernandez said. “I told him I was a champion, but his face was kind of blank. People in Mission Viejo don’t follow boxing much.”

The reason might be that Hernandez has fought extensively in Japan and Europe. After slowly climbing the ratings ladder since turning pro at the Forum in 1984, Hernandez, 26, won his WBA crown by beating Daniel Londas in France 11 months ago. He is 26-0.

Hernandez defended his championship against Omar Catari at the Forum, then defeated Takeda Masuaki in Japan last July. On Nov. 20, he will earn $150,000 when he defends against Yuji Watanabe in Tokyo.

Hernandez is a tall, lean boxer who relies on textbook fundamentals, a solid defense and superb conditioning. He runs 1-1 1/2 hours every morning.

“I’m not a puncher--at least, I don’t think of myself as one,” he said. “If I stop a guy, it just happens. I always plan to go the distance and out-box a guy.”

Although he has taken his family out of South-Central L.A., he hasn’t changed gyms, staying with the Brooklyn Gym, a converted auto repair shop in Boyle Heights.

Until he became a champion, he was a regular at Southland boxing venues. Nine of his 26 fights have been at the Forum, and he fought eight times at the Irvine Marriott.

His goal is to unify the junior-lightweight (130 pounds) championship, which would mean having his manager, Nori Takatani of Los Angeles, get title matches against WBC champion Azumah Nelson, IBF champion John-John Molina, or both.

De La Hoya also trains at Brooklyn and has often sparred with Hernandez.

“This match with Watanabe is a mandatory for Genaro, so once he gets past that, there are several options,” Takatani said.

“We’d like to get Nelson. That would be a big-money fight for him. And if Gabe Ruelas can win a title, that’s another good one for us. Jeff Fenech (of Australia) would be a big payday, but they’d have to pay Genaro a lot of money if they’d want to fight him in Australia.

“We expect someone in Europe to make us an offer to fight Jimmy Bredahl of Denmark, probably in France.”

One place where Hernandez definitely isn’t going is up in weight. For his last three fights, he hasn’t been within a pound and a half of the 130-pound limit.

For years, Takatani had pleaded with Hernandez to move out of South-Central L.A., where he had lived most of his life. Last spring’s riots were the persuader.

“My wife and I lived in an apartment at 36th and Maple,” Hernandez said.

“The night the riots broke out, everyone was breaking into the stores down on the corner. Mothers and children were stealing boxes of (diapers) and cases of beer. Even gum ball machines got smashed open.

“I got kind of worried. Well, I was worried even before that. There had been drive-by shootings on that corner, maybe twice a week, for a while.

“Just before we moved out, a gang member got shot and killed at 2 a.m. at a warehouse next to where we lived. We heard the shots.”

Hernandez and his three brothers--older brother Rudy won the first Forum tournament, in 1983--are the sons of Rodolfo and Helen Hernandez.

Rodolfo, at 18, hitch-hiked from Guadalajara to Los Angeles in 1952. Along the way, he stopped to pick dates in Indio, cotton and vegetables in the Imperial and San Joaquin valleys.

In Los Angeles, raising his family at their home at 28th and Maple, he drove his sons to East L.A. high schools every morning, then picked them up after school and drove them to gyms.

Now, a decade later, his son is a champion.

Boxing Notes

Ten Goose Boxing chief Dan Goossen, who promotes Greg Haugen and Terry Norris, says he made the following wager with promoter Don King: If Haugen and Norris beat King’s two fighters, Julio Cesar Chavez and Simon Brown, on Dec. 5 at Las Vegas, King has to shave his head. If Chavez and Brown both win, Goossen has to lose his locks. If it’s a split, each keeps his hair.

Goossen wants to match his junior-welterweight, Hector Lopez, with either Pernell Whitaker or Hector Camacho after Lopez’s recent victory over Donald Stokes. . . . It’s expected that Azumah Nelson’s opponent at Caesars Tahoe will be Calvin Grove. Nelson balked at fighting Gabe Ruelas in a match he had previously agreed to. . . . The Los Angeles tribute to 1930s and ‘40s boxer Billy Conn might not come off after all on Nov. 6. Conn, 75, has recently suffered from frequent dizzy spells.

Jeremy Williams of Long Beach, beaten twice by Montell Griffin of Studio City at the U.S. Olympic boxing team trials last summer, has signed a one-year contract with Mike Tyson’s former manager, Bill Cayton. Williams, an amateur light-heavyweight, will fight at 195 pounds (cruiserweight). . . . An amateur show is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at the Wilmington Longshoreman’s Hall. Ten bouts are scheduled, matching boxers from the San Pedro Boxing Academy and Boxers Against Drugs and Alcohol (BAD). Proceeds will benefit Hawaii hurricane victims.

Ever wonder how boxing people distinguish between middleweight champion Julian Jackson (44-1) and junior-middleweight John David Jackson (26-0)? John David Jackson is known as “Jackson the Lesser.” . . . Here’s how much box office clout Tyson took with him to prison: The top seven fights in HBO’s ratings were all Tyson fights. The first non-Tyson fight in HBO’s top 10 was the 1987 replay of Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

The disappearance of that old knockout power in Thomas Hearns’ right hand may make some sense now. Hearns had surgery recently, after a specialist found an old break that had never healed in Hearns’ right hand. Hearns said he had been troubled by the hand since Hagler knocked him out in 1985.

Loreto Garza update: He’s in line for a WBA junior-welterweight title shot against Morris East of the Philippines for Sacramento promoter Don Chargin. Garza recently completed police academy training for a $40,000-a-year job as a prison correctional officer. . . . Does this make sense? Heavyweight Lennox Lewis, who lives in London, is training at Caesars Pocono Resorts in Pennsylvania for his biggie Oct. 31 with Razor Ruddock--in London. . . . Buddy McGirt, WBC welterweight champion, will fight Mexican Genaro Leon on the Evander Holyfield--Riddick Bowe undercard Nov. 13 at Las Vegas. Bowe, incidentally, is training at Sunriver Resort on the Deschutes River in Oregon.

Two members of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team will be featured on ESPN Oct. 28 when Todd Foster (25-2) boxes Kelcie Banks (20-3-1) in Missoula, Mont. . . . New Jersey no longer has its “mandatory” drug testing program for professional boxing because of state budget cutbacks. . . . Flyweight Eric Griffin, whose defeat in the quarterfinals at Barcelona was the biggest upset of the Olympic boxing tournament, will turn pro next Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court case of boxer Dio Colome vs. the State of California will enter its fourth week Tuesday. Colome, a Dominican with a second-grade education, is seeking $25 million in damages from the state. He claims a state-required neurological exam he failed in 1988 was improperly administered and that the examination was culturally biased. Colome’s attorney, Carl Douglas, rested his case Friday. The trial is expected to take another week to 10 days.