Carrying a 24-pack of bottled waters, a stem of bananas and an undeterred dream, Mexico\u2019s Vladimir Hernandez squeezed out of a compact vehicle onto scorching asphalt Thursday, preparing to again expose his fighting heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when the crowd\u2019s into it. That always excites me, and I feed off the energy,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter what the crowd size is. When the free-swinging, granite-chinned Hernandez is in the ring, the fans are typically in full-throated mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cVladimir is a real, old-school warrior who\u2019ll fight anyone, anytime, anywhere,\u201d ProBoxTV matchmaker Daniel Rubin said. \u201cAnyone who has a bad night versus Vladimir Hernandez will lose. He\u2019s not a guy you can make a mistake with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former 154lbs world champion Julian Williams found that out in 2021 when the left-handed Hernandez, 17-7 (7 KOs), upset him by split-decision. A year before that, Hernandez toppled former 154lbs title challenger Alfredo Angulo.<\/p>\n
In 2023, touted prospect Lorenzo Simpson became another victim.<\/p>\n
Two of the blemishes on Hernandez\u2019s record are current WBC interim middleweight champion Jesus Ramos Jnr and former 154lbs champion Israil Madrimov.<\/p>\n
Saturday night at the National Orange Show, Hernandez meets unbeaten Kevin Anton, 13-0 (12 KOs), a 6-feet-3 ProBoxTV rising contender, in a time-honored meeting between fighters with contrasting career hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of entertaining fights, but I\u2019m not just satisfied with that. I still want to make it to the top. I still want to be world champion,\u201d Hernandez said, delivering a smile made crooked by his continued willingness to exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care about [Anton\u2019s] age or that he\u2019s on his way up. I\u2019m coming to do my work and take him out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be honest: Boxing sorely needs Vladimir Hernandez and his lot, the brawlers unafraid of scarring themselves or their win-loss percentage, knowing what the fans want, willing to test their ability against any man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no choice. I\u2019m ready to do what I\u2019m here to do,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI believe in myself\u2026 whatever age I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez said he\u2019s pondered his position rather deeply after losing a decision to Francisco Daniel Veron in his last bout and being away from the ring for a full year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a must-win, and I\u2019m ready to win,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go physically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, Hernandez faced Thursday night needing to shed a few more pounds to make the limit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll do it\u2026 put on the plastics, jump rope, go for a run,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cI\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carrying a 24-pack of bottled waters, a stem of bananas and an undeterred dream, Mexico\u2019s Vladimir Hernandez squeezed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,710,49,48,283567,262770,82,283566],"class_list":["post-807303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-joshua-kevin-anton","tag-proboxtv","tag-sports","tag-vladimir-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}