Erik "El Terrible" Morales is one of the best fighters in the ring today at any weight, with the aura that the truly special fighters project. But he's going to have his hands full when he meets Carlos "Famoso" Hernandez in a battle of champions at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on 31 July.
The two meet in the super featherweight (or junior lightweight) division, with Morales defending the World Boxing Council title while Hernandez puts up the International Boxing Federation belt.
Morales, 27, from Tijuana, Mexico, has won titles at three weights and in 47 fights he has stopped 34 opponents with just one loss, the debatable decision to Marco Antonio Barrera.
He's been in a lot of high-profile fights, especially the two with Barrera (one win each, decision disputed each time) and he is, of course, a clear favourite in the betting.
Hernandez, 33, born in Los Angeles of Salvadorian parents, is not as well known, although he's a champion in his own right and has been around a long time.
In fact, people in boxing probably remember Hernandez mostly for his losses in his two biggest fights, against Genaro "Chicanito" Hernandez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. But Hernandez says he has a new self-belief after working with legendary trainer Amilcar Brusa for the last three years.
Hernandez seems, in fact, totally "up" for the fight, ready for the biggest challenge of a career that began more than 12 years ago when he was handled by one of the great Los Angeles manager-trainers, the late Jackie McCoy.
Speaking from his home at West Covina, California before heading up to the mountains east of Los Angeles at Big Bear for training camp, Hernandez said: "I'm confident and happy. I'll have my family at training camp, my wife Veronica who is my masseuse, my doctor, my psychologist, my everything, and my baby son Christian [who will be seven months by the time of the fight] - I can't be without my little guy."
If he upsets Morales it will be a triumph not just for him but for the 81-year-old Brusa, famous for training the great middleweight champion Carlos Monzon and who moved to Los Angeles several years ago to open a boxing gym. "He had the great Carlos Monzon and he wants to go out, to end his career, winning the WBC title and beating Morales with the great Carlos Hernandez," Hernandez said in his good-humoured way.
"With Brusa in my corner, having him work on things I'd never worked on before and using them in the fight, it's helped me a lot. More than anything, he gives you confidence, the confidence you need to win. I was a seasoned fighter but he worked on the little things. The style that I had was from Jackie McCoy, I didn't want to be different from the kind of fighter that Jackie made me, but when Brusa came along he just polished up some things that I needed to work on with defence and offense. We worked on my head movement, footwork, everything you need as a fighter."
Hernandez has a record of 40 wins, three losses and a draw, with 24 opponents halted. After being a game loser in fights for the WBC belt against Chicanito Hernandez and Floyd Mayweather Jr he finally won a world title last year, capturing the IBF version of the 130lbs (9st 4lbs) championship with his eighth-round technical decision win over David Santos at the MGM Grand. He made a successful defence last October - another technical decision win - against former champ Steve Forbes, in Los Angeles.
In each case a head clash ended the fight, with Santos getting cut in Las Vegas while against Forbes it was Hernandez who was sliced.
But Hernandez was winning each time, using his all-action, swarming style and physical strength to overcome boxers who were considered classier.
He feels he has the perfect style to beat Morales: pressure, staying on top of him. "There's no other way," he said. "He's a great right-hand puncher and if I give him the distance he's gonna smack me. I have got to nullify his right hand by staying inside.
"I was at the Injin Chi fight in Los Angeles [when Morales won a hard-earned points victory three years ago], and I was saying that the guy who comes in like a tank will beat the guy, and I believe my style is that way. It's not that I don't know any other way to fight - I do - that's the way I like to fight.
"I've been 12 rounds with Genaro Hernandez and Floyd Mayweather. This guy is coming from a lighter weight. I know he still hits hard, but is he faster, is he better than Mayweather? I don't think so. I'm coming into the fight with a lot of confidence."
Hernandez agrees that Morales struggled to beat Jesus Chavez in February but said: "I feel that Morales wasn't at his best. I feel he's really gonna train harder for me than what he did with Chavez. I believe he took him lightly. I remember listening to his interview and he said: 'I don't need to train for three months, I know what I'm gonna do' and he trained for six weeks. Maybe he was not motivated, I'm not sure. Although this was for a third title I didn't see that fire in his eyes. And yet, not having the fire in his eyes, he did well - he got the job done. I expect a hungrier Morales, the type of Morales who fought Barrera. He wants that IBF belt and he wants to beat me."
It seemed to me that Morales looked a little vulnerable against Chavez, even getting wobbled in the opening round. He came back to drop Chavez twice in the second round but after that it was a gruelling war.
Chavez fought with an injured right shoulder but even as basically a one-handed fighter he gave Morales a bitter argument.
I thought that perhaps wear and tear was starting to show on Morales, who has been fighting at the top level for a long time: He won his first title, in the super bantam division, almost seven years ago when he stopped veteran Daniel Zaragoza in the 11th round of a bruising war.
It could be, though, that Morales started to believe his own press and needed a wake-up call. If so, he got one from Chavez.
Hernandez is probably right when he says that Morales will be the best that he can be on 31 July.
It should be quite a night. Morales as ever will have the passionate backing of the Mexican contingent but Hernandez will have support in the crowd, too.
"There's a rivalry in L.A. between the Salvadorians and the Mexicans - the fans love to fight each other during soccer games," he said. "This is boxing, but they don't care. The last time I fought in Vegas I had four busloads go and the president [of El Salvador] was there. I think the president is going to go to this fight, too, so I think there will be more Salvadorians there than when I beat David Santos. My wife is Mexican but she'll be Salvadorian for the night."
And he feels his supporters are going to have plenty to cheer about. "When I fought Mayweather I felt I was as good as I could be at the time but I didn't have that big-fight experience," he said. "We fought in a big arena in Grand Rapids [Mayweather's Michigan hometown] and everyone was cheering for him. That was my first fight with Brusa; we only had two months together. Now I have all this knowledge from Brusa I feel way more confident. I didn't feel confident for that [Mayweather] fight - I felt I was going to beat him, but I wasn't sure.
"I'm going into this fight very confident, happy - I even thank Morales for wanting to fight me. If I beat someone else, people will say: 'Carlos Hernandez, whatever,' but if they say: 'Carlos Hernandez, the guy that beat Morales', that's something."
But can he do it? Morales is an elite-level champion who has been through the fire in tough fights as a super bantam, featherweight and now a super featherweight. He has faced pressure before and prevailed and the feeling here is that he will do so again, but Carlos Hernandez is coming to win and he's awfully hard to discourage, as Morales will find out before this contest is over.
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