Carlos Hernandez (boxer)

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Carlos "El Famoso" Hernández (born January 23, 1971 in Sesori, San Miguel, El Salvador) is a boxer. He made boxing history by becoming the IBF world Jr. Lightweight champion by beating David Santos for that organization's vacant belt. Hernandez then became El Salvador's first world boxing champion in history. Hernandez counted in that fight with the backing up of Alexis Arguello, Roberto Duran and the Salvadoran President, all of whom were at ringside cheering for him. On October 4, he retained the title against former IBF world Lightweight champion Steve Forbes, with an eleventh round technical decision.

Hernandez, who moved to the United States in 1991 to reach his goal of becoming a champion, has a record of 39 wins, 4 losses and one draw with 23 knockouts. In previous world title tries, he had lost a decision in 12 to Genaro Hernandez and to Floyd Mayweather Jr..

Hernandez lost to Jesús Chávez on May 28, 2005, in a fight that, had he won, would have led him to another world title fight.^[1]

On October 8, 2005, he suffered a controversial lost against Bobby Pacquiao, the brother of the popular Super Featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines in a 10-round Split Decision. Pacquiao managed to drop Hernandez in the 2nd round, but Hernandez fought back consistently starting Round 3 to close the fight, or even take the points by 10th. To the eyes of the fans and commentators, it should have gone the other way in favor of Carlos Hernandez, but was still a very close fight to call.

On September 28, 2006, Hernandez announced his retirement after losing by UD to Kevin Kelley; after an even first 3 rounds, he was knocked down in the 4th round, and unable to regain momentum from then on.

On retirement, Hernandez had this to say: "My time...in this career...if I'm going to get knocked down back-to-back it's time to call it a career. I don't want to get hurt in this business. I have beautiful children....I feel bad that I couldn't win, but you know, I think that everyone who saw me knows I won't get knocked out or I won't go down, I'll keep coming, I'm relentless, I persevere. That's my motto, 'perseverance pays off.' I think I'll just persevere in another career. I don't know what that may be, but I'm going to keep succeeding in life."