Yoan Pablo Hernández Suárez

He was born in the city of Pinar del Río, he is a Cuban professional boxer. Hernández fights in the cruiserweight division. He is the current Cruiserweight World Champion of The Ring and the IBF. Yoan measures 1.93 m and is a left-handed fighter.

Yoan Pablo Hernández began boxing with Cuba's national team at an early age. He obtained the silver medal at the 2001 World Cadet Championship (under 17 years old) in the 201 lbs (91 Kg) category. He won at the Junior World Championship held in Santiago de Cuba in 2002, in the heavyweight division, but lost twice against his compatriot Odlanier Solis and was forced to move down in division. In the light heavyweight (80.7 Kg) in 2003 Hernández won the silver medal at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo where he lost to Ramiro Reducindo.

He participated in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games in the light heavyweight division with the Cuban team. He lost in the second round against Russian boxer Evgeny Makarenko (double world champion in the division).

Despite being considered one of the best prospects of Cuban boxing, he left his native country for Germany and currently lives in the city of Halle.

Amateur Achievements
2001 Cuban junior champion of heavyweight
Youth World Championships as heavyweight, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The results were:
Defeated Dato Dundva (Georgia) by points
Defeated Rufat Hairbekov (Azerbaijan) by points
Lost to Siergej Ivanov (Russia) by points
Junior World Championships 2002 as heavyweight, in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
The results were:
Defeated Justin White (Canada) RTD 1
Defeated Vitaly Mikhyeyenko (Ukraine) 31-11.
Defeated Stefan Koeber (Germany) RSC 3
Defeated Parfait Amougou (Cameroon) RSC 3. (Wins the gold medal)
2003 Pan American Games as light heavyweight, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The results were:
Defeated Eduardo Beltran (Ecuador) RSC 1
Defeated Argenis Casimiro Núñez (Dominican Republic) RSC 4
Lost to Ramiro Reducindo (Mexico) 20-37 (Wins the silver medal)
He represented Cuba as light heavyweight at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
The results were:
First round bye:
Lost to Evgeny Makarenko (Russia) 18-30
2003 He was knocked out by Odlanier Solis in the third round of a Cuban amateur boxing competition in the heavyweight division.
2004 He obtained third place in the Cuban national light heavyweight competition, losing by points to Vladimir Linares Mesquia RSC 4
2005 National Champion of Cuba (light heavyweight)

Hernández is a fast boxer but with little power, he currently fights in the cruiserweight division. Hernández knocked out Daniel Bispo in the first round to thus win the vacant Fedelatin WBA title in the Cruiserweight weight.

On December 29, 2007, he knocked out title challenger Mohamed Azzaoui to retain his WBA Fedelatin title and thus win the vacant WBC Latino title; however, he suffered his first professional loss on March 29, 2008, when he lost by TKO in the third round to former champion Wayne Braithwaite of Guyana, after having been ahead on the scorecards in the first two rounds, and even had Braithwaite in trouble during the first round. Hernández was arrogant during the third round and stopped punching Braithwaite, which allowed his opponent to attack and knock down Hernández three times in that round.

In his next fight he clearly won by UD against prospect Aaron Williams.

On September 19, 2009, Hernández defeated Enad Licina with a wide unanimous decision for the IBF Cruiserweight Intercontinental Title, becoming the first Cuban to win that title.

On March 13, 2010, Hernández made the first defense of his title against Cesar David Crenz by unanimous decision.

On February 12, 2011, Hernández won the WBA Interim Cruiserweight Title by knocking out Steve Herelius. With this victory he had a record of 10 consecutive wins since his loss to Braithwaite and improved his record to 24-1 (13 KOs).

On October 1, 2011 in Neubrandenburg Germany, Hernández defeated Steve Cunningham in the sixth round by technical decision to thus win the IBF Cruiserweight Title. The fight was stopped due to a cut on Hernández caused by a head clash, however some considered the victory to be controversial. Cunningham was knocked down in the first round after receiving a left hand punch from Hernández, although referee Mickey Vann decided the fight should continue despite Cunningham appearing to have been hurt, the count was also controversial for being somewhat slow.

Cunningham reappeared during the second and third rounds, throwing powerful body shots at Hernández in those rounds especially in the third. However this round was also controversial, because Hernández was hit with an accidental headbutt which caused him a cut and many considered was intentional; nevertheless the referee did not stop the fight, nor did he give Cunningham a warning.

During the fourth round, both fighters were more or less at the same level, with Cunningham throwing his jab and Hernández throwing combinations. During the fifth round, Hernández accidentally hit Cunningham behind the head when referee Vann was separating them from a clinch. During the sixth round Hernández's corner as well as the ring doctor inspected the cut caused by Cunningham's headbutt. Subsequently Hernández appeared to be ready to continue the round, however the referee stopped the fight because the doctor considered that Hernández could not continue. The scoring was 57-56 for Cunningham, 58-55 and 59-54 for Hernández.

A rematch took place in Frankfurt Germany on February 4, 2012. The winner of this fight was going to be considered The Ring Cruiserweight World Champion, this time Cunningham was knocked down on two occasions in the fourth round; and finally Hernández won by unanimous decision, thus retaining his IBF World Cruiserweight Title.

Professional Record
27 Wins (13 knockouts), 1 Loss (TKO) [1]
Res.

Actor in 2010 Hernández played Joe Louis in the German film Max Schmeling.

In 2012 Cuban Yoan Pablo Hernández retained his cruiserweight title of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) by defeating Canadian Troy Ross by points in a twelve-round bout held in Bamberg (southern Germany). The scoring of the three judges was unanimous in favor of the Cuban: 114-113, 115-112, 116-112.