A generation later, Albert Guardado Jr. watches another Kansan head to the Olympics

Growing up in California, Albert Guardado Jr. always looked forward to fighting kids from Kansas.

“It wasn’t really a state known for boxing, so those guys were usually easy wins when you faced up with them in Golden Gloves and stuff like that,” Guardado said. “It’s quite a different story now, though. Really different.”

A different story that, at least for Guardado, started when he became one of those kids from Kansas. Then he was the one doling out the punishment.

“My dad worked for Santa Fe Railroad in San Bernardino (Calif.), and when they closed up there his work brought the family to Topeka,” Guardado said. “I was a teenager and already having a little success in boxing and we just brought that training and that program we were already on with us when we moved to Kansas.”

Guardado’s “little success” downplays what was an elite amateur career – he won bronze at the 1993 World Championships and 1995 Pan Am Games before the biggest moment of his career, when he represented the U.S. in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta as a light flyweight.

Guardado went 2-1 in Atlanta, making it to the quarterfinals, where he lost a close fight to the Ukraine’s Oleg Kiryukhin.

“That was the time of my life,” Guardado said. “The Olympics was a totally different experience than anything I’d ever been through or have ever gone through.”

One generation later, Guardado, who lives in Lenexa with his wife and three children, has watched another light flyweight from Kansas rise through the amateur ranks and earn a spot in the Olympics as Wichita native Nico Hernandez heads to Rio to fight next month.

Guardado, as the purchasing manager for Combat Brands and Ringside Boxing, has gotten a first-hand view of Hernandez’s rise through the amateur ranks.

“Part of my job is that my company sponsors events, some of those being Golden Gloves and Silver Gloves nationals,” Guardado said. “So I’ve seen (Hernandez) fight all over the place, and I’ve seen him dominate. It’s certainly not a surprise to anyone who knows the sport that he’s an Olympian.

“I think we’re all proud of him. He’s incredibly skilled and I think he knows it just keeps getting harder the higher up you get.”

Guardado had a similar background to Hernandez in that they were both trained by their fathers — Guardado by Albert Sr. and Hernandez by his father, Lewis.

Everything else is much different. Guardado qualified by fighting other Americans, first in Oakland, Calif, where he barely missed earning a spot, then in Augusta, Ga., where he qualified.

Hernandez qualified in March by defeating Argentina’s Leandro Blanc at the Americas qualifier in Buenos Aires.

“After I qualified, there was just this massive outpouring of support,” Guardado said. “It felt like I had everyone in Topeka behind me.”

Guardado’s Olympics became known for a bombing at Centennial Olympic Park.

“My family left that area about an hour before the bombing,” Guardado said. “When it happened, I was already back in the Olympic Village, asleep, and didn’t find out until I woke up the next morning.”

He also didn’t have the kind of professional prospects Hernandez will have once his amateur career is over — presumably right after the Olympics. Guardado fought nine fights as a professional.

“Being a smaller guy, back then, the financial benefit of going pro wasn’t much,” Guardado said. “But Nico is coming up in a different time. With guys like Brandon Rios and Victor Ortiz, just from his own state, there’s a path for him to follow to be successful.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "A generation later, Albert Guardado Jr. watches another Kansan head to the Olympics."