Super featherweight legend 'Chicanito' Hernandez

battles rare, aggressive cancer

Fundraising banquet scheduled Saturday at Legends of Boxing Museum

By DENNIS TAYLOR

The ex-champ's voice becomes lively and animated when the subject turns away from his life-or-death battle with cancer, and focuses instead on a storied boxing career that included two world titles, electrifying fights against Azumah Nelson, Jorge Paez and Carlos "Famoso" Hernandez, among others, and the only two losses of his 41-bout campaign, to a couple of rising superstars named De La Hoya and Mayweather Jr.

Genaro "Chicanito" Hernandez was a much-greater fighter than most people realized in the 1980s and early 1990s -- a long and lean super featherweight with a quick, stabbing jab, fast hands, gorgeous fundamentals and a rock-solid chin. He spent four years of his career as the undefeated WBA super featherweight champ, vacated that title to move up to the lightweight division, and then, two years later, became a 130-pound king again -- this time for the WBC -- holding that belt for yet-another year. Hernandez was 12-1-1 in super featherweight championship fights, the only loss coming to Floyd Jr., 17-0 at the time, in the final bout of his professional career in March of 1998.

  "Chicanito" loves talking about those wars -- even the one he lost to Oscar in September of '95, the only time two two L.A. homeboys ever faced each other. Hernandez fought that one with a broken nose and had to quit after the sixth round -- still a great source of disappointment to him all these years later, but hardly a regret: Doctors discovered afterward that the cartilage was broken in 22 places.

Boxing conversation galvanizes him more than ever nowadays because the other main focus of his life is a less-pleasant subject. Hernandez was diagnosed on Dec. 1 with an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer that requires him to endure radiation treatments five days a week (for another 17 weeks), plus once-a-week chemotherapy that will last another seven months. Earlier this week, he underwent surgery to have a feeding tube inserted into his stomach, since he's currently unable to process food down this throat -- a problem that has cost him 24 pounds of body weight.

The symptoms that most cancer patients experience simply weren't there, so Genaro thought very little about it when he found a lump on his neck in October.

"I just thought it was a little bit of fatty tissue," he said Sunday on The Ringside Boxing Show. "So I decided to wait a week to see if it would fade away."

Hernandez, who works HBO and ESPN2 fights for PunchStat, kept a date to work the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas, even after discovering additional growths two days after his original find. Those were in the lymph node area, which prompted the ex-champ to make an appointment.

"The first doctor I saw told me it was nothing and sent me home, but I was uncomfortable with that," he said. "So I went to another doctor who took some X-Rays. Sure enough, they found a tumor in my nose, around the right sinus."

That was on a Wednesday. By Friday, biopsies revealed that that tumor and those on the back of his neck were a rare and aggressive cancer, rhabdomysarcoma, found almost exclusively in children 6 years old and younger. By the following Monday, Hernandez found himself receiving radiation and chemo.

"The prognosis ... well, right now they don't give me any prognosis at all. The doctors tell me it all looks good, but they don't want me to get my hopes up," he said. "They want to wait until the radiation and chemo treatments are all done."

Friends, many of whom are associated with the WBC Legends of Boxing Museum in San Bernardino, have scheduled a benefit for Hernandez on Saturday (5 p.m. for social hour, 6 p.m. dinner) to help the ex-champ and his family (a wife and two children) with medical and living expenses. Anybody can attend for a minimum $50 donation and dine alongside a Who's Who of the boxing world, past and present. The event also will include a silent auction, a live band and a comedian.

"That makes me feel like the tears are about to come rolling down," he said Sunday, his voice breaking slightly. "Honestly, I never really thought people would care about me, or any other fighter who's been retired for such a long time.

"It's touching to know so many people out there are willing to help, and I appreciate every, single one of them from the bottom of my heart," he said. "I feel so much love for all of those people."

CLICK HERE for complete details about Saturday's benefit for Genaro "Chicanito" Hernandez, plus information about donations

Dennis Taylor is a California boxing columnist, co-host of The Ringside Boxing Show, and editor/publisher/webmaster of "The Boxing Amusement Park." He may be reached at contact@ringsideboxingshow.com