Andrew Braithwaite

Fearless" Fernando Hernandez likes what he sees. A tall, shaggy blond kid, who can't be more than twenty years old, has spent the last two minutes bouncing around the ring and pummeling Hernandez's trainer's mitts, in the hopes of proving himself worthy of a spot on the Fox network's new boxing-themed reality program.

"No, seriously, no more jokes. I like this kid a lot," says Hernandez after the kid's been led away for the interview portion of the audition. The boxing ring at Crunch Fitness is closed to members on this Sunday morning, while the folks at Endemol, an L.A.-based production company, are conducting their hunt for reality-TV talent.

The show, which will feature Oscar De La Hoya as the host and is currently titled "The Next Great Champ," has already held auditions in eight U.S. cities, including Chicago, according to casting director Martha Fainberg. While the casting crew travels to each city from L.A., the men doing the evaluating in the ring today are local boys. Hernandez (who uses his full, three-name moniker and constantly refers to himself in the third person) is a professional boxer who has "bionic reflexes" that are "quick enough to catch anything that the fighter might throw at the mitts." He's also very funny--when another boxing friend enters the gym with a horribly wrinkled shirt, Fearless asks him if he's feeling anemic today, "'cause you look a little iron-deficient."

Evaluating the contestants' work in the ring is boxing promoter and judge Mike Falcione. "A lot of these kids have the talent, but obviously aren't the type of person that would play well on TV," he says. The boxers are put through a program of two minutes on the double-end bag (to measure accuracy), two minutes on the heavy bag (to measure power), and two minutes in the ring with Hernandez to judge speed and "ring generalship."

All auditions are taped with a hand-held video camera and sent back to L.A. "Then the producers will decide which applicants they love and invite them to L.A. for further screening," says Fainberg. An initial field of 30 will run through a kind of boxing boot-camp (the applicants can't have any significant professional experience) before being trimmed to twelve, when the competition begins in earnest for the chance to win a pro bout and a contract with De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.

Both Hernandez and Falcione still think highly of the morning's first competitor, the gangly, unassuming fellow with the shaggy blond hair. "You never expected a kid who looks like that to move and hit the way he did," Falcione says. "It's always fun to have a kid like that come in and totally surprise you."

(2004-05-18)

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