Could Nico Hernandez get a title shot within a year?

Nico Hernandez has been deemed a “qualified challenger” by the World Boxing Council, according to father and trainer Lewis Hernandez, meaning the 21-year-old Wichita native is already eligible to fight for a world championship.

Hernandez (1-0) has his second bout coming next Saturday at Park City’s Hartman Arena in a six-round, flyweight bout against Jose Rodriguez (2-0) — but won a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics and owns a 125-10 record as an amateur.

A boxer must be ranked in the top 10 of a weight class by the organization, a former champion, or a current champion in another weight class to earn a shot at a WBC title. Although Hernandez is unranked, he qualifies under “special circumstances” because of his Olympic bronze medal — the first Olympic medal from a U.S. boxer since 2008. He was also approved by two-thirds of the WBC’s Board of Governors.

“That’s my goal in boxing is to capture a world title,” Hernandez said. “For it to be happening at 21 is a good feeling. I thought it would take a little bit longer, but that’s the game plan is to go and try to capture it next year and then go from there and see what happens.”

Although Hernandez is already eligible, his father wants him to face some tougher competition before challenging for a belt. Right now the plan is for Hernandez to challenge for a world title sometime in early 2018.

“I give him a few fights and then we’ll be fighting for a belt coming real soon,” Lewis Hernandez said. “I would say within the next four fights he’ll be trying to capture a world title early next year. Hopefully WBC, that’s what we’d like to go for.”

Which weight class will the title shot come in? That remains to be decided, but Lewis Hernandez seemed confident Nico would be best-suited to contend in the flyweight (112 pounds) division. He also said Nico could cut weight even further and drop down to fight at the minimum weight (105) and light flyweight (108) for belts.

Fighting for a championship this early in Hernandez’s career is important to Lewis, who views his son’s career limited to a certain number of fights. Expediting his path to a title gives Hernandez’s professional career more meaningful fights instead of toiling away for years to move up the rankings to earn a title shot.

“The way I look at it, no matter how tough of an opponent you face, every fight takes something out of you,” Lewis Hernandez said. “So if he can up right away and start knocking off some of those top guys right away, then why not have tough fights early on? Why keep putting him in these battles if he can already be right up there at the top with the experience he already has?”

In order to find competition strong enough to prepare him for a championship bout, Nico Hernandez will likely have to travel out of the state for future fights. His first two professional fights have been at the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane and Hartman Arena in Park City, both short drives from Wichita.

The fight next Saturday is likely to be his final fight in Kansas in 2017.

“Obviously nothing is set in stone and we would love to keep it here if at all possible, but we’re also talking to our promotion (KO Night Boxing) and trying to get bigger fights,” Lewis Hernandez said. “We don’t know what will happen yet, but if we have to go somewhere else then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

If it means a shot at a championship, it would all be worth it to Nico Hernandez.

“I’ve been working at this since I was a little kid, 50 pounds as a 9-year-old,” Hernandez said. “I’ve been training early in the morning, going on runs, going on diets, missing out on family time and things like that. Everyone that knows me knows it mean a lot to me. Now I’ve got to go win it.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Could Nico Hernandez get a title shot within a year?."