BOXING / TIM KAWAKAMI : Hernandez Gets a Jab in Against WBC

They move from fights to funerals to financial windfalls, because they are boxing people and the sport always rolls on.

There are deals to be made and bills to be paid, and one fallen fighter doesn’t change any of that. Genaro Hernandez knows that better than most.

Hernandez, the World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion who has never been able to get that one payday that could set him up for life and take care of his Mission Viejo mortgage, was at the Las Vegas wake for Jimmy Garcia a few weeks ago, paying his respects.

Last November, Hernandez, despite injuring his right hand early in the fight, dominated Garcia in winning an easy decision. That didn’t prevent Garcia from being allowed to challenge for Gabriel Ruelas’ World Boxing Council title on May 6.

Garcia collapsed after absorbing many thunderous shots to the head but gamely staying in the fight until losing an 11th-round technical knockout to Ruelas. He died 13 days later.

“Without trying to put the WBC down, I don’t think they should have accepted that fight,” Hernandez said. “They saw what I did to him with one hand in Mexico.

“And then they put him in there with somebody who’s like Godzilla now, fighting like he doesn’t think he can get hurt, somebody who’s just too strong. . . . Not only that, Jimmy Garcia had to lose all that weight in two months--that’s a lot of weight for someone who didn’t have much of a punch to begin with.

“When I fought him, he didn’t feel strong to me.”

At the wake, Hernandez said he talked to some members of Garcia’s family, who had flown up from Colombia.

“His sister told me that Jimmy had told her that he was never going to be put on the canvas again, after I dropped him,” said Hernandez, who knocked Garcia down in the fifth round of their fight with a double left hook. “I guess he was just trying to stay on his feet.”

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Also at the wake, in a scene that could only happen in boxing, Hernandez says he was approached by promoter Bob Arum, who assured him that his long-awaited chance to fight Oscar De La Hoya--and earn at least $500,000--was about to come true.

The pay-per-view fight is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 16 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, but Don King wants to hold a card topped by Julio Cesar Chavez vs. David Kamau on the same day in the same town, and Arum says that the De La Hoya-Hernandez bout could be moved to another date in September.

Hernandez has signed for the fight and De La Hoya is expected to sign next week.

Said Hernandez’s brother and trainer, Rudy: “This is the fight that will make Genaro.”

Hernandez, who had been hoping for a shot at De La Hoya for more than two years and had been exchanging gibes with the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization lightweight champion, says he thinks De La Hoya’s two-round blowout of Rafael Ruelas May 6 set up his shot.

“I thought it was never going to happen,” Hernandez said. “But he probably got confidence from knocking out Rafael.”

The September bout, if the deal can be completed, will be for De La Hoya’s lightweight belt, which means that Hernandez, rail-thin at 5 feet 11, will have to move up from 130 pounds to 135.

Hernandez, whose last bout was a victory over Jorge Paez in January, acknowledges that his fragile hands will never be 100%. He has had four operations, three on his right hand and one on his left, but says despite the problems, he is sure he could give De La Hoya trouble.

“Hey, it’s better to hurt my hands receiving a big payday than with a small payday,” Hernandez said. “And with all due respect to Rafael, I think I would give [De La Hoya] a harder time. I can fight him inside and I can fight him outside.

“It looks like Rafael can only fight on the inside to release his power punches. Rafael doesn’t have any body movement.”

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According to Arum, the De La Hoya-Hernandez fight, which had fallen apart on at least two earlier occasions when Hernandez wanted more than was offered, was put together this time because De La Hoya proved himself a pay-per-view draw. About 400,000 homes bought the May 6 show.

“We offered Hernandez $300,000 earlier, and now we see what Oscar can draw on pay-per-view, so we could go up,” Arum said, adding that De La Hoya’s guaranteed purse would be more than $1 million. Hernandez also gets $1 for every pay-per-view home over 300,000.

With the IBF making noises that it may strip De La Hoya if he doesn’t fight No. 1 contender Miguel Julio of Colombia, Arum said the bout wouldn’t be affected if it’s only for the WBO title.

“After the unfortunate incident with Garcia, one thing I’m not going to do is put Oscar, who punches like a mule, in with some other Colombian nobody has ever seen fight,” Arum said. “You’ve got to be responsible.”

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Boxing Notes

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, says that as a result of the death of Jimmy Garcia, he will run a study exploring the possibility that great weight loss in the days before a bout makes a fighter more susceptible to serious head injuries. Ratner says that as soon as a Nevada fight is announced, he will try to weigh the fighters, to get an idea of how much they will have to take off before the official weigh-in. Although promoter Bob Arum and others say that Garcia had to lose 32 pounds in the weeks leading to the fight, possibly dangerously dehydrating himself in the process, Ratner says Garcia’s father told him he had to lose only about 15 pounds.

Ratner said referee Mitch Halpern had handled the Garcia-Gabriel Ruelas fight correctly and that he purposely put the referee back into the ring as quickly as possible. That turned out to be during a card at Stateline, Nev., the night Garcia died. And the bout Halpern worked involved the WBC’s top-ranked super-flyweight, Cecilio Espino. One of Espino’s earlier opponents, Hector Ruiz, died after their fight and another, Miguel Mercedes, lapsed into a coma before reviving. “It was a very, very big test for Mitch,” Ratner said. “There were two knockdowns in one round, and he could have panicked and stopped it, but he looked very intently at the guy and the guy stayed in the fight. I believe Mitch handled himself fabulously.”

Joe Goossen, trainer for the Ruelas brothers, said both fighters are taking significant time off for the first time in years and probably won’t return to the gym until late July and might not fight until September. “I think the fact that Gabriel dealt with the Garcia family several times before Garcia finally passed away, that was almost good therapy for Gabriel,” Goossen said. “I think he has a very positive outlook on the future. I’m very happy Gabriel has a clear conscience, because there’s no reason he shouldn’t.”