Hernandez Gets His Reward Late

Genaro Hernandez, who has lost out on the lion’s share of boxing’s rewards mostly because of fragile bones and the decency of his soul, wasn’t seeking redemption in March, only respect.

But, by rising when others would have stayed down, by lifting himself beyond the doubts of the past, Hernandez got them both.

In an act so natural to him that even now he seems startled by the reaction it prompted, Hernandez did not panic or quail when he was knocked to the canvas after the seventh-round

bell when Azumah Nelson fired an obviously late left to Hernandez’s throat.

Though a few fighters recently have accepted the easy disqualification victory after being similarly fouled--including Montell Griffin over Roy Jones just the night before--Hernandez got up, rested for a few minutes, resumed his dominance of the bout and took Nelson’s World Boxing Council junior-lightweight title, almost two years after giving up the World Boxing Assn. title to fight Oscar De La Hoya.

Now, as he prepares for his title defense against Anatoly Alexanderov on the undercard of the June 14 De La Hoya-David Kamau bout in San Antonio, Hernandez and his brother-trainer, Rudy, find themselves suddenly appreciated.

This is in contrast to the catcalls and worse both experienced after Hernandez’s forced sixth-round surrender in 1995, when De La Hoya smashed his already-damaged nose.

“We’re surprised it’s gone as far as it’s gone,� Rudy Hernandez said. “You know, at the time, we’re not thinking about De La Hoya or anything. I’m just thinking, ‘Genaro, you can continue. You’re doing so great right now, let’s don’t blow it. Let’s go and kick his butt.’

“Hey, now that I think of it, it’s the best decision we could’ve made.�

But, though the fight might have washed away the grumbles, Genaro Hernandez, 35-1-1 in his long career, says he can’t ever forget the shunning he experienced after losing to De La Hoya.

“It feels good that people are more interested now, and they’re more respectful,� Hernandez said. “But, in one way, I don’t respect that, because when I was the world champion for three years, none of them were interested in me. And all of a sudden, one fight changed the whole thing.�

It wasn’t the fight, it was the drama.

After the late hit, Genaro Hernandez, still on the canvas, asked Rudy if he should get up or stay down and win the title by disqualification.

“Champions are made by fighting, and not by laying on their back!� Rudy screamed.

And Genaro Hernandez, the proud product of South Central L.A., nodded and got up.

“God, when they announced it was a split decision, I was kind of scared,� Rudy Hernandez said. “Maybe I had made the wrong decision and my brother followed me into it, and did I cost my brother the title? And that’s spooky, man. I would’ve had to live with that my whole life.

� . . . But we’re not like Luis Santana [the journeyman who twice stayed down after being fouled by Terry Norris to take victories]. We have the talent and we don’t need the easy way out.�

Now, after all of the delays caused earlier in his career by his chronically sore hands, and all of the big fights he missed out on because he wasn’t considered glamorous enough, Hernandez is fighting on HBO in June for the first time.

He hopes that HBO and the East Coast opinion-makers will be impressed enough to try to force a unification fight against International Boxing Federation champion Arturo Gatti in the fall, a fight that could land Hernandez his first $1-million-plus purse. But Gatti apparently already is close to a deal to fight former WBC champion Gabriel Ruelas, probably in October.

How confident is the Hernandez camp against either Gatti or Ruelas?

“Tell you what, if we get Gatti, assuming Genaro’s not cut or anything after beating him, we’d fight Ruelas later that night,� Rudy said.

ONE LAST BELT

As a salute to Nelson on his great career and to thank him for giving Hernandez the title shot, Hernandez draped the WBC belt around Nelson at the end of the fight, and let him walk out of the ring with it.

Problem is, Hernandez still hasn’t received a belt back from the WBC, even though the organization has been pushing him to wear its patch on his shorts for the June fight.

“It annoys me because I would figure they’d send me the belt right away,� Hernandez said. “I just have to wait and see when I’m going to get it.�

Boxing Notes

Five problem-plagued years after he was one of the U.S. team’s highest hopes for a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics, light-flyweight Eric Griffin gets his first chance at a world title tonight at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas against Jesus Chong in a bout to be televised by Channel 9. . . . Proving once again that Bob Arum and Don King know each other as well as the snake knows the mongoose, Arum fulfilled King’s prediction by announcing that he had signed Terry Norris, until recently King’s fighter, to a promotional contract. Last week, Arum denied involvement in Norris’ lawsuit to break the $1.5-million deal he signed with King to fight Felix Trinidad in August at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Thursday, Arum trumpeted the signing, saying that, barring legal impediments, he will have Norris fighting for him by summer and that he foresees a Norris-Pernell Whitaker fight in the fall, maybe with the winner facing Oscar De La Hoya in early 1998. This week, Norris got an injunction preventing King from taking any action until the lawsuit is settled, probably later this month. The most immediate casualties: the long-awaited Trinidad-Norris matchup, which almost certainly is a goner, and the hot-and-cold, long-term relationship between Norris and his manager, Joe Sayatovich, which also seems irrevocably damaged. . . .

Local super-bantamweight Carlos Navarro, who lifted his record to 9-0 in less than a year as a professional with a knockout victory earlier this month, is being eyed by promoter Cedric Kushner and already could be fighting for a title by the end of next year. . . . Fascinating News from the Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson preparations: King announced this week he is paying each fighter a guaranteed $30 million after Tyson had been reported to be receiving $20 million. If true, the $60-million guarantee would all but preclude King from making a profit and lends credence to speculation that Tyson was chafing at making anything less than equal money.