The hero

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 29, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

As always, Carlos Hernandez is 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds, or 130 when he's preparing for a fight.

But something has changed in the past two or three years, even if it isn't physically apparent. And it's a change Hernandez has welcomed.

His shoulders have broadened.

It's something that had to happen, if Hernandez was to support the weight of the burdens he has willingly accepted as not only the International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion but as the foremost athlete from his ancestral country, El Salvador.

When he fights Erik Morales on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Hernandez will not only be fighting for himself, his family and his country, but for his philanthropic side as well. He's a spokesman and key contributor to El Piche, a charitable organization in El Salvador that has generated money for flood, earthquake and famine victims and which has a teenage girl in need of a liver transplant as its current mission.

"I'm doing what I can to help my people," Hernandez said Wednesday, adding that the receipts of at least 200 tickets to the fight will go to the El Piche fund. "It's a big responsibility but it's my obligation, I feel.

"I want to be their hero and someone they can look up to."

Rarely has such a short man stood so tall in his countrymen's eyes. Hernandez may have been born in Los Angeles (to parents from El Salvador) but he holds dual citizenship and is in regular touch with El Salvador's president, which is now Antonio Saca.

"He called me the other day," Hernandez said of Saca. "He said he wouldn't be able to come to the fight because it's not a real good time. El Salvador is getting ready to send troops to Iraq."

A previous president, Francisco Flores, was known to jump into the ring to help celebrate Hernandez's victories.

"I fight for my family and for the money, we all do that," Hernandez said. "But I also do it for my country.

"It feeds me, gives me motivation. It gives me the drive to beat the other guy.

"I know I have the weight of millions of people."

Hernandez has entertained political ambitions in the past, and he may yet be drawn into politics when his boxing career is over -- which, he says, "maybe isn't that far away." He also has an interest in real estate, fancying himself as "another Donald Trump."

If any of those plans seems too grandiose for a humble fighter, consider Hernandez's impoverished beginnings and his emergence as a respected world champion.

"We were poor," he said of his childhood and early adult years. "We lived in friends' garages and took handouts."

If he is able to defeat Morales, Hernandez will all but have a pipeline to the bank of his choice. It's a daunting task to turn back a fighter of Morales' skills and reputation, but Hernandez said he intends to do it.

"I'm fighting one of the best fighters in the world," he said. "But I'm doing it with a great deal of confidence."

It's a confidence he admitted he didn't possess earlier in his career when he lost world title fights to Genaro Hernandez and Floyd Mayweather Jr., respectively. But since the latter defeat, in 2001, Hernandez has won all seven of his fights and matured into a worldly man of 33.

His boxing record is 40-3-1 with 24 knockouts.

Morales, 27, is 46-1 with 34 KOs.

In the sports book at the MGM, Morales is a minus 400 betting favorite and Hernandez is a plus 300 for a scheduled 12-round fight that will also have Morales' World Boxing Council junior lightweight title at stake.

Hernandez and Morales are mildly compatible yet hardly friends.

"He's a guy I admire for what he's done for his country and himself," Hernandez said of the Mexican superstar. "But Saturday night I'll put that admiration aside."

Morales weakened the bond between them during a Tuesday press conference in Los Angeles when he claimed Hernandez appeared "uninspired" for the unification bout.

"He said he doesn't see the hunger in me, but he will," Hernandez said. "It seems to me he's a little cocky but he has a right to be, I guess.

"The fact that he happens to be Mexican -- how beautiful it would be to beat this guy."

Despite the fact he'll be giving up two inches in height and almost seven inches in reach, Hernandez feels he has a physical advantage over Morales that he will exploit.

"This is what, his third fight at 130?" Hernandez said. "But he hasn't faced anyone I've faced in my weight division. He has fought at a very high level, but at a lesser weight.

"Now he's going to face a guy who is a natural 130 and we'll see how that affects him."

A rugged battle is likely to ensue.

"His culture, his blood, his heart obligate him to stay in there and trade," Hernandez said of Morales' penchant for slugging it out. "I've prepared myself for a guy who will be at his best (and) I expect a tough, grueling battle.

"But I'm going to be putting pressure on him. That's why I've worked so hard to get ready for a megafight like this."

In his best wins to date, Hernandez has defeated Goyo Vargas, Justin Juuko and former world champion Steve Forbes.

But Morales is a fighter on a still higher plateau, as Hernandez recognizes.

"He has power and a lot of confidence, but so do I," Hernandez said. "Having that (IBF) belt around you, you can't look at it like I'm a pigeon going in against a hawk.

"Now I have the opportunity to demonstrate my skills."

He has already demonstrated his character.