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12/07/2005 Archived Entry: "‘Macho’ Miguel Hernandez Speaks Out on Recent Remarks by Hitz, Chicago Fighters and His Future!"
‘Macho’ Miguel Hernandez Speaks Out on Recent Remarks by Hitz, Chicago Fighters and His Future!
By Juan C. Ayllon
"Macho" Miguel Hernandez (photo courtesy of Miguel Hernandez)
CHICAGO – This last Saturday at the fights at the Aragon Ballroom, popular Chicago middleweight boxer “Macho” Miguel Hernandez approached me at ringside and said that he wanted to do an interview discussing some things promoter Bobby Hitz had said in an interview with me two days earlier. In Hitz’ interview, he had made some disparaging remarks about Hernandez’ promoter, Dominic Pesoli, Miguel’s cancelled fight versus Andre Ward, and Pesoli’s stable of fighters, amongst other things.
Having fought for both promoters, Miguel felt the sting of some of Hitz’ remarks and wanted to set the record straight on a few issues raised without getting disrespectful.
On what happened with his proposed fight with Andre Ward:
MIGUEL HERNANDEZ: Back in August, they asked me if I wanted the fight. He fought Christopher Holt; I was out for that bout, and I wasn’t ready for that fight. I just had finished fighting in July. I said, ‘no.’ Then, they called back in August to fight in November—for November 19th, on the under card of Mayweather-Sharmba Mitchell, and I said, ‘Yes.’ That fight didn’t happen. We were waiting for a contract. They never sent a contract. They called back and said we’ll have a guarantee for a fight December 15th.
So, I stayed in the gym training and after he fought on November 19th. We received the contract on Monday, November 21st. I signed the contract and sent it back. They had their contract and signed it. It was a done deal for December 15th.
It was moved up from six rounds to eight rounds, the co-main event on Fox Sports. I didn’t even argue the pay, the same pay [as for six rounds]. I wasn’t trying to be greedy or ask for more money. I was just honored to fight Andre Ward.
Well, then it comes down the line, we’re getting ready, I had called to ask about the airline, and how we’re going to do this, ‘cause I wanted to bring my kids out there—I didn’t want to fight without them—and I got a phone call that the fight was cancelled, that he would fight sometime next year. And they didn’t tell me if he was going to fight me or not. I was kind of disappointed, because I was looking forward to doing the fight.
But like Dominic said to me, “That’s what happens in boxing.” I mean, maybe I’ll still get that fight.
On the difference Hernandez sees between Chicago promoters Dominic Pesoli and Bobby Hitz:
MH: I would say, working with Dominic, he puts it on the table and tells you straight out.
Dominic will tell you straight out, ‘Okay, look: Here’s a fighter that was offered to me. You beat this guy, the next fight will be more money, you’ll get a ranking and you’ll get an opportunity to move up. If you lose, you’re in the same position; you’re not going to move up, you know?'
He puts it out there for you; he gives you that opportunity to say, ‘I’m going to train hard.’ It’s up to the fighter to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to train hard, do what I can to win the fight.’
Dominic will tell you how it is. He’ll tell you, ‘I’m going to give you a fight. You’ve got to do what you got to win this fight in order to bring the next fight to make more money or to get a shot at the NABF or the title shot.' And, it’s up to us as the fighters to do what we’ve got to do.
The difference is that [with] Dominic’s problems and Bobby Hitz’ problems is that Dominic keeps it between him and Bobby, and Bobby wants to put down fighters, and talk about fighters, and [say] ‘Dominic has no fighters,’ and ‘…has no real—what he calls—boxers.’ And that’s kind of sad for someone that, when I fought for him, he was happy!
I don’t have anything negative to say about either promoter. Both of them have been arguing since before I started boxing and they’re not going to like each other after I’m done boxing. So, that has nothing to do with me.
On Hitz's request that Miguel fight his boxers, Chris Troupe and Darnell Boone:
MH: And he talks about it and says, ‘Why doesn’t Miguel rematch Chris Troupe and [fight] Darnell Boone?’ Or, he’ll say that Chris Troupe beat Miguel Hernandez.
Let’s go back to that day. It was in December. He had a fight at the Ramada, and the main event was O’Neal Bell against Derrick Harmon—he usually fights light heavyweight, moved up to fight cruiserweight; and he had Vitaliy Kopytko that fought Pat Coleman—who usually fights at 147—went all the way up to 168; and the fight of the night was Chris Troupe and myself. We had everyone standing up for a standing ovation after our fight; it was a four round fight, two undefeated fighters fighting each other. And that was the fight of the night.
And now he says I lost the fight, and he says that he’s a man of his word?
When he walked into the ring [after our fight], he handed us $200 each bonus for having such a great fight. And then, he says to me, ‘You won the fight, Miguel, you won the fight,’ and, ‘I thought you won the fight.’ Well, watching the tape, you know, I won 2 ˝ rounds and Chris Troupe won a round and a half. A four round fight, you know, hey! It was a great fight. I didn’t cry about it.
But for him to say, ‘Oh, Miguel, you lost the fight’ and saying, ‘Why won’t you rematch Chris?’ For what? Why would I rematch Chris Troupe? You know, there’s no money in there. That’s not going to get me ranked. Why would I fight Darnell Boone?
And I wish those guys the best, whatever they do. But, why would I fight them? That would not be a smart business move on my part. You know, I’m trying to move up in this business. I’m trying to make my money. I train hard. My record is 17-3, I have a shot to get a good payday. You know, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction and put money in his pocket.
I’m out there to fight and I want to make some money. You know, he’s made a lot of money; he made a lot of money off of me when I fought for him. You know, that’s why he was upset when I left.
And talk about being loyal: ‘I’m loyal to my fighters' and 'I’m loyal’? You know, he’s so loyal that he signed Chris Troupe 2 ˝ hours before our fight. You know? But, did I get mad? No, that’s him being a promoter. He’s trying to take care of his business.
On moving to Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions:
MH: So, I didn’t go right away. I asked Dominic first to fight on his card. I fought on his card. I feel more comfortable with Dominic.
And I’m not the only fighter, because Dominic’s stable is getting a lot bigger. You know, a lot of fighters are coming over there.
I don’t put no one down; you, yourself interviewed me a couple times and I never said anything negative about Bobby Hitz. And, I’m not now about him. I’m just speaking the truth.
On how boxing takes away from spending time with the kids:
MH: With me, who knows? Maybe I have three, four fights left. You know, I’ve got my kids, and they need me as a father, and I’m going to do my best to be a father to them. And, boxing takes a lot of time away from your kids. You know, like that whole interview with Bobby Hitz, that’s probably the most truthful thing he said was that it takes time away from your family. He is a good father, and I’m a good dad. And, I want to be there for my sons.
On how hard it is to make it as a boxer, versus an Andre Ward, for example:
MH: The money here, we don’t have the luxury. The fighter has to go out, get the sparring partners. We go out, we sell the tickets, we try to get our own sponsors, us as fighters, we’re out there hustling. When we’re getting ready for a fight, we’re setting up our own sparring. I mean, my trainer, Sam Colonna, sets up sparring for me to prepare me for whoever I’m fighting.
And, no one else is going to say, ‘Here, Miguel, you know, here, this fight didn’t go through. Here’s money.’ We don’t have that luxury here. In Chicago, we bust our butts off to try to make whatever we make out of it. Here, you’ve got some fighters—like I said, I’ve got 20 professional fights, and Andre Ward has seven, and he’s made more money in his two fights than I made in all 20!
And, not to take nothing away from him; he well deserves it. He won the Olympic Gold Medal. I have nothing bad to say about the kid. He worked his butt off. He was an amateur standout and it would be a privilege for me to fight him.
I would love to fight someone like that! I just have to look forward and with my promoter, Dominic, ‘cause like I said, we have a good relationship. You know, he has good relationships with his fighters. He’s honest, he comes and tells you how it is and it’s up to put your part.
On Hitz’ implicit claim that promoters make the show:
MH: And another thing that bothered me a little bit about the interview is a promoter comes out and says they make the show. They make the show possible. No, that’s wrong. The fighters make the show. People pay their hard earned money to go watch the boxers in the ring.
Let’s have Bobby Hitz put his picture on a poster and try to sell tickets just to hear him talk, see if he’s going to fill the seats. No. It’s not going to happen!
On remarks Hitz made about Rudy Cisneros:
MH: You know, he said [that] he made a show for Rudy Cisneros and just for him to fight on the card. People pay to go see Rudy Cisneros fight. He’s an exciting fighter, you know?
On how fighters in Chicago train together regardless of promoter affiliation:
MH: And, it hurts, man, it hurts, because we train together. There’s no grudge. I train at Windy City. I train with all the fighters. I spar with Bobby Hitz’ fighters, I even spar with Chris Thomas, Ed Gutierrez, you know. They don’t get ‘no sparring here.’ My trainer, Sam, says, ‘Listen, Miguel, I need you to spar with this guy.’ There’s no arguments. [Instead, it’s] ‘Go ahead, let’s go.’ I don’t say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, that’s Bobby Hitz’ fighter? I’m not going to spar with him.’ No, that’s not what we do.
And vice versa: Ed Gutierrez, Chris or any of Bobby Hitz’ fighters, they don’t say, ‘Oh, I’m not going to spar with him; he fights for Dominic.’ No, as fighters, we support each other.
On sparring with Mike Nevitt to help prepare him for his win of the Illinois Light Heavyweight Title:
MH: Yes, that’s a great guy and he was in great shape. He looked really good. He fought a tough fight.
And that’s another thing with the experience here with 8 Count: none of our fights are easy. You’ve got to go and fight. Every fight, it’s a fight. You’ve got to train hard and be prepared. They try to get you ready for the next level.
And Mike Nevitt’s a witness to that. He fought Rocky Smith and Rocky came out to fight! But, Mike Nevitt was in great shape; he could have went 12 rounds. And, I prepared him. We did a lot of sparring. He had a lot of other help, but me and him, we sparred a lot for that fight.
And, had I still had the fight with Andre Ward, he was going to come back to the gym on Monday after his state title fight—and it was a tough fight that he was in—he was going to come this week and spar with me to get me ready for the Andre Ward fight. That’s being loyal right there: Us fighters in Chicago how we help each other. That’s being loyal to each other. And, hey, I love these guys. Man, these guys, they come and I support them all! I wish them the best. Hey, you know what? If they get a title shot and they make millions of dollars, hey, I’m happy for them. I’m not going to be crying because I didn’t get the opportunity. No, it’s up to me, as a fighter, to put my part in it, and train hard and see what I can get out of it.
On how slighted he felt when Hitz said Dominic had "no fighters" in his stable:
MH: It’s hard because here, Bobby Hitz goes to the gym and he says, ‘hi,’ and we say, ‘hi’ and to hear an interview like that where he’s upset and his words that he said in his interview that us as fighters—we as fighters—that Dominic has no fighters in his stable. That wasn’t right. Even those fighters that even fought for him, you know? He contradicts himself.
And, when a show falls through for him, you don’t see interviews being made talking about that. We try to move on with our own thing. And, hopefully, he decides to do the same.
So, I wish him the best in boxing and whatever he decides to do.
On Bernie Bahrmasel, Dominic Pesoli's PR man:
MH: I look at Bernie like I look at you. He does a lot for Chicago fighters by putting their name out there giving us coverage and writing like he does. He doesn't get paid much, but he does it for the love of the sport.
On a more personal note, how his cousin had cancer during his last fight in which he admittedly fought a bit flat against Jeremiah Torres:
MH: Yeah, my cousin, Andy. He comes out with me [in my ring entrances] and he walks me out with my sons, or my boys. It’s hard when he’s like—he is—my brother. You know, I have a little brother, lives in Florida, love him to death. But, this guy, my cousin, he is my brother. We’ve been through a lot together.
And, he’s a fighter. He’s fighting everyday and he’s in a lot of pain. But, he looks a lot better. With the prayers and his faith, he’ll be good. He was diagnosed with Lymphoma and skin cancer. He’s going through treatments right now. He’ll be all right.
It was hard. I had a lot of things on my mind. That, and he was there to fight with me. And the pain he was in, he still went to the fight, he walked to the ring. It meant a lot to me. He motivates me. And, I love him to death! He’s always going to be there for me and I’m going to be there for him.
You know, that fight there, it was a good fight. I got to work on some things. They say, you shouldn’t overlook an opponent, but I was excited to fight Andre Ward. And this guy came to fight. Jeremiah Torres is a tough kid. I hit him with some shots I didn’t know how he stood up to. But I’m going to get stronger. I’m just going to let my hands and my fights do my talking.
On what’s coming up next for Miguel:
MH: Well, we’ll see. We’re working on some things right now and I wanted to fight that Jose Luis Zertuche, Andre Ward, fights that are going to get me ranked.
We’ll see, maybe I can get a fight January 6th or the 27th, Dominic’s having a show. Maybe I’ll get in one of those and be ready for next year. I just have to stay in the gym and keep training hard!
On his diet:
MH: Well, it’s mostly like protein. You decide to take the carbs out. Eventually, you eat some bread. Like me, I try to stay [with] just chicken, potato, fish, tuna. I try to stick to that and that helps a lot.
You know, once you get your weight, you can eat practically whatever you want, just small portions. You know, and a lot of running!
On how far he’s running:
MH: You know, I try to go four or five miles. Five days. I mean, some days, your body lets you know you need a rest. You get a good day in the gym where you spar hard and you’re sore. That’s what training’s for.
I’ve cheated myself a couple times. You know, you say, ‘Ah, I’ve had enough.’ No, you need to push yourself, ‘cause to me, you’re fighting more when you’re training. It should be easier when you go in there and fight when you’re in shape, not trying to fight to make weight. You don’t win a fight on the scales.
I’m speaking for myself, too. Sometimes I fight hard to make weight. And, come the next day, you’re so sluggish.
On who he’s sparring with:
MH: Different guys. I sparred with Dave Pareja. Tomorrow, I’m working with David Estrada. Next week, I’ll spar with Ed White, the super middleweight IBO [former world titlist] guy. He’ll be back in. He’s a very nice guy. I spar with Rudy Cisneros. I spar with a lot of other guys. Like I said, I spar with Chris Thomas, Ed Gutierrez, Will, different styles, different guys. I’ve just got to keep sparring. And Saturday, we’re going to spar with some middleweight; I one of [famed Kronk trainer] Emmanuel Steward’s middleweights is going to be there; I guess it’s one of his fighters. And some Irish kid—I don’t know his name. That’ll be good work, too!
Last Thoughts:
I want to thank Dominic for everything he’s done for me. And my cousin, too! He’s the best. Merry Christmas to all the fans in boxing, a safe Christmas and happy new year.
I just hope that the next year I get to show the fans that, hey, thank them for supporting us for the whole year. These fans are great! You know, Saturday at the fights, they came out to support the fighters. Without them, we wouldn’t fight. As long as they keep coming to the fights, we’ll continue to fight.
And, I want to thank you because you’re a big help for Chicago. You’re a good person, man.
