Alexander Hernandez Found His Balance

Sure, it put him on the map in the lightweight division, got him ranked, and put in motion a string of big fights and opportunities. But as he soon found out, fighting among the monsters in the 155-pound weight class came at a cost.

“I’ve always been quick, I’ve always been the fast guy,” Hernandez said. “And that’s something I would tell myself at ’55. ‘You’re strong and you’re very quick, so you’re gonna have a speed advantage on these guys. They do have the size advantage, so you’re gonna be strong, but they’re gonna be bigger and they might feel stronger also. But we’ll be faster.’ That was from the Dariush fight where I was like, man, I feel like we’re moving on two different speeds here. I’m a lot quicker and I can crack this guy, so maybe we can replicate this recipe across the board where we can evade them, be quick, be technical, then we might be able to get away with the lack of size.”

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It worked in spurts. The Dariush fight was followed by a win over Olivier Aubin-Mercier which led to a high-profile 2019 bout against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Hernandez lost that one, then alternated wins and losses over the next three years. When he was on, with knockouts of Chris Gruetzemacher and Mike Breeden, he looked like a killer. When he wasn’t, it was clear that the Hernandez of the Dariush fight wasn’t the same fighter. So almost immediately after a February loss to Renato Moicano, Hernandez decided that he needed to shake things up.

“When I got out, you get a whirlwind of thoughts and everything, but I would say maybe within 24 hours, but for sure within that week, I said we gotta make a change. This just has to feel a little differently, and it’s this constant battle – is it physical or psychological? And a hundred percent, it’s both, but there is a big physical element to it.”