Former super featherweight champion Genaro Hernandez is reportedly suffering badly from rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. According to USA Today and the LA Times, Hernandez is looking gaunt and frail due to substantial weight loss.
Hernandez was an East LA fighter in the classic Mexican-American mold. He won the WBA Super Featherweight Title in 1991 and held onto it for three years. Hernandez vacated that belt to challenge Oscar de la Hoya for the WBO Lightweight Title in 1995, a clash between two undefeated fighters that Hernandez lost. He won the WBC 130 lbs championship in 1997, which he kept until 1998 when he was defeated by a youthful 17-0 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. During his career, Hernandez beat luminaries such as Jorge Paez and the legendary Azumah Nelson. Following the loss to Mayweather, Hernandez retired and worked as a trainer and an announcer for HBO’s Spanish language international broadcasts.
When he was first diagnosed with cancer, “Chicanito” was abandoned by his health insurance provider (a story all too familiar for too many Americans) and unable to pay for his own treatment. However, Hernandez was always popular within the California boxing community, and benefit events and some help from promoter Bob Arum have raised some money to help pay for his chemotherapy. In mid-2009, Hernandez’s cancer was supposedly in remission, but it has since returned and Hernandez’s prognosis is unclear.
Everybody from the ProBoxing-Fans.com team would like to send our best wishes to Genaro, one of the true good guys in the game and ambassadors for the sport, and to his family during this difficult time.
