Hernandez Debut Is a Success Hernandez and the knock-out punch! Moments after winning his professional boxing debut at the San Mateo Event Center, Juan Hernandez couldn’t help but get emotional. “When my mom hugged me, she was crying and I started crying, too,” said Hernandez, who splits his time training at the <strong>Redwood</strong> City Police Activities League center and Undisputed Gym in San Carlos. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Spectrum</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> profiled his story last month. <strong>The</strong> 2005 Sequoia High graduate can’t remember the last time something caused him to shed tears, but he can easily be forgiven for needing some Kleenex after his impressive showing in front of a boisterous hometown crowd. Hernandez, 24, needed only 22 seconds to knock out Seth Keeling in their cruiserweight bout. <strong>The</strong> knockout came so fast that two of Hernandez’s three trainers — Rick Nava and Moises Cabrillo — missed the right uppercut–left hook combination that sent a bloody Keeling reeling to the floor. “I had my head turned away because one of the officials said I had to sit down [once the fight starts],” said Nava, who was the cornerman for Hernandez for the fight. “At the amateur level, you’re allowed to stand, so for a split second I forgot the rules were different at the pro level.” A second was all it took for the 5-foot-9-inch, 194-pound Hernandez to strike and deliver a decisive blow. Keeling never saw the punches coming, as Hernandez delivered a vicious right uppercut that struck flush on Keeling’s chin. A dazed Keeling was already going down when Hernandez grazed him with a left hook. By then, the damage had already been done. Hernandez then looked into the crowd and saw his parents, girlfriend, brother and friends in the www.<strong>Spectrum</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>.net crowd, which included five or six members of the <strong>Redwood</strong> City Police Department. “It was very emotional,” Hernandez said. “Everything went so fast, and [in the post-fight announcement afterward] I looked up on the big screen and asked Rick, ‘Is that me?’ He laughed and said, ‘Yeah, that’s you.’ I couldn’t believe it.” In the days leading up to the fight, Hernandez actually had a dream that he would win by knockout. “I just didn’t dream it would be 22 seconds,” he said. “He didn’t even touch my face.” In one night, so much was accomplished. Hernandez built an impressive resume as an amateur, winning numerous Golden Glove and PAL state championships in compiling a 16-2 record. As he walked into the ring, Hernandez’s insides were churning. “But I felt very relaxed,” he said. So relaxed that Hernandez actually took two — yes, two! — naps in the locker room in the hours leading up to the fight. <strong>The</strong> Hernandez- Keeling match was the seventh fight on Phantom Promotion’s Fight Night to the Playboy Mansion, and they didn’t get into the ring until 10 p.m. Hence, Hernandez needed to catch up on some sleep. After taking his first nap, Hernandez started warming up and stretching. When an official told him his fight was going off after one more match — roughly 30 to 40 minutes — Hernandez promptly went back to sleep. “I was feeling confident, knowing I was mentally and physically prepared,” he said. Hernandez wasn’t the only one confident he would win. When Nava saw his protégé put on the 10-ounce pro gloves in the locker room, he knew Keeling was in trouble. Nava said the gloves amateurs wear are 12 ounces and bulkier, thus softening a blow to the head. Amateur boxers also wear head gear. “<strong>The</strong> 10-ounce gloves are thinner and I knew Juan’s punches would be felt,” Nava said. “It was scary.” Nava, who also serves as Hernandez’s manager and promoter, is making a lot of calls trying to get his fighter another bout. However, Nava said it’s hard trying to get promotional companies to put up one of their own fighters against Hernandez. “This game is kind of new to us,” Nava said. “You have matchmakers, promoters and people under them, and it all seems to be about who you know [in trying to set up a fight]. Golden Boy Promotions might take a look at him, and we hope that happens. But as we go forward, we want to protect Juan as far as managers go. <strong>The</strong> max managers [are allowed to take from a boxer’s earnings] is 30 percent, and we don’t want to do that. You take 30 percent off a boxer [who is trying to rise up through the ranks] and charge him fees for the gym and equipment, and that’s why fighters end up with nothing.” Nava wants to make sure that doesn’t happen with Hernandez, who, in addition to being an aspiring boxing star, works up to 50 hours a week at two different jobs. Although Hernandez takes a certain amount of satisfaction in his work as a caretaker and landscaper, his ultimate goal is to one day make a living through boxing. He knows it’s a long road, but nothing has deterred him so far. “I’m going to keep working hard to realize my dream,” Hernandez said. <strong>The</strong> dream is off to a good start. Editor’s note: This article appeared previously in the Daily Journal newspaper.
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