By Thomas Gerbasi
The “gym” is as far away from the glamour associated with the professional debut of an Olympian, but for the young man who collected a bronze medal for the United States in the 2016 Games, a fight’s a fight, so wherever you can get the work done, you do it.
“When I was little, that’s how we started out and it doesn’t really matter where you train as long as you put the hard work in,” Nico Hernandez said. “Then you’ll see the results in the end. It will definitely be nice being back in the gym, but we make it work here.”
“Here” is the place in Wichita, Kansas where he’s put in long hours getting ready for his Saturday debut against Patrick Gutierrez. It’s a familiar spot. How familiar?
“I had to put a gym in my house and basically turn two bedrooms into a makeshift boxing gym,” Hernandez’ father and coach, Lewis, said. “We had to do what we had to do to prepare for this fight because we had no boxing gym, and the rec center we were trying to work with, we had to work around their schedule and it wasn’t really doing it for us, so we got it together like this.”
The Hernandez’ usual gym, the Northside Boxing Academy, was badly damaged by fire last November, leaving the Olympian and his gym mates without a training home. But with his son’s debut approaching, Lewis turned into MacGyver as the process to get their gym back and running continues. As for sparring, he admits Nico and Aaron Morales have done some work in the house, most of their in-ring work takes place at a gym crosstown.
The 21-year-old wasn’t born when Rocky IV celebrated the beauty of going old school in training camp, but Hernandez knows more about it than many of his peers.
“Most people my age and in this generation aren’t training like that,” he admits. “They’re in nice gyms with air conditioning. But even in my gym (Northside), it’s pretty old school. It’s an old fire station, and in the winters it’s super cold because we don’t have heat and in the summer it’s really, really hot because we don’t have air conditioning. It’s just different.”
It is, but it also makes fighters. Then again, you could say Hernandez’ fighting heart was forged even before he picked up a medal in Rio de Janeiro this past summer.
“Nico has always been hard,” Lewis said of his son. “He’s had a hard life. We grew up poor. And we’re still poor. We’re not rich by any means, but we’re content. We’ve got food in the fridge and a roof over our head and that’s a lot. But me and his mother got divorced and I raised him on my own for four to five years and he had to be the big brother and man up for his brothers and sisters because I had to work all the time.”
Once Nico could drive, he was tasked with picking up his siblings from school and basically being a father figure when his father worked. That’s a role not lost on Lewis, who remembers the days when the family struggled, but stuck together.
“We had to boil hot water on the stove just to have bath water and open the oven to have heat,” he recalls. “It’s everybody’s struggle. I’m sure our story’s not a lot different from a lot of people’s story, but stuff happens like that. He’s always been a good kid, a real loyal kid, but he’s been through a lot and a lot of people don’t that side.”
His opponents have seen that side. Hernandez clearly had the talent to succeed, but you need more than that, and the Wichita native is the kind of fighter who won’t go away easy. It’s why he earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, and why he upset Italy’s Manuel Cappai, Russia’s Vasili Egorov and Ecuador’s Carlos Quipo Pilataxi on the way to bronze. And he did it all with one bad wheel.
“He rolled his ankle when he got there, so he couldn’t train at all,” Lewis said. “He got to swim a little bit and ride a bike, but he couldn’t walk. He was on crutches up until three or four days before he had to fight. They just taped his ankle and he went to work. He loves to win and he knows how to win. Even as an amateur, he always lost the first round, and I always told him I thought he’d make a better pro because he always gets better and better as the fight goes on and once he figures you out.”
So while the gym fire was upsetting and an inconvenience, it wasn’t going to deter Hernandez from his path – or from social media, where he is part of the first generation of fighters that grew up with Twitter, Instagram and the like.
“I think it’s really important, especially to get the word out,” Nico said. “Younger people are on social media 24/7 so if you go on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, everybody’s gonna see what you post, so I think it’s a great way to connect with your fans.”
And while Nico says there are haters around, they’re outnumbered by his fans, especially at home in Wichita, where he has been described as the city’s franchise. That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a 21-year-old.
“Life has changed a lot,” he said. “It’s like being a superstar now. Everywhere I go, people are asking for autographs and asking to take pictures and things like that. Every time I go to eat, a lot of times people will ask to pay for my food. (Laughs) So yeah, it’s different.”
But how does he keep it all together?
“I don’t know,” he laughs. “I just pray and listen to my father. We bump heads, of course, but I try to listen to him as much as I can.”
It’s worked so far for the Hernandez family, and Lewis expects more of the same from Nico on Saturday and beyond.
“Nico’s always been a winner,” Lewis said. “It doesn’t matter who’s in front of him or who’s the best, he’s always wanted to fight the best. He’s a very humble kid and boxing’s a very humbling sport, so you want to stay that way because it will humble you.”
Doesn’t sound like being humble will be an issue for a kid who lets his fists do the talking, making him the perfect fit with the hardworking Midwest folks who will make their way to the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane this weekend or watching on CBS Sports Network.
“I’m not too nervous yet,” Nico said. “I’m sure I’ll be getting more nervous, but I’m excited because I’ll be able to show my talent in person in front of everybody that was supporting me while I was at the Olympics. And I’m also going to show the world too because I’m going to be fighting on live TV.”