The talented Cuban was “fat” and demoralized because his career stalled while living in France, where he moved from Panama after leaving his country’s national team during an amateur tournament. Hernandez had only two fights on his professional record at that time. With no prospects for a third bout and a child on the way, he thought it would be best to find a full-time job.

That’s when his pregnant wife, Vanessa, a retired judo champion from Cuba, put her foot down.

“She was the one who pushed me,” Hernandez told The Ring. “She said, ‘You got to get back in the ring, get back to work.’ She was the one who talked me back into boxing. We left Cuba to make a better life for us and our family. We didn’t come to play with anybody. I’m extremely happy that she knocked some sense into me.”

They used their visas to travel to the United States through Mexico soon after he began taking training seriously, thanks to Hernandez’s relationship with his manager, Rob Valle, who is based in Providence, Rhode Island. Less than three years later, Hernandez has developed into one of the sport’s top middleweights.

Ranked No. 2 among The Ring’s contenders for a vacant 160-pound championship, Hernandez (9-0, 8 KOs) will encounter his most accomplished, experienced opponent to date Saturday night. If Hernandez defeats Terrell Gausha (24-5-1, 12 KOs), a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland and a longtime contender, he’ll advance one step closer to the middleweight title shot he hopes he receives by the end of 2026.

“I know he’s a durable guy,” Hernandez said. “He’s a crafty veteran. He has been in there with some of the guys that I want to fight that are currently world champions. But I plan on stopping him or at least pitching another shutout, like I did with Kyrone Davis [on May 31]. This is going to be a Kyrone Davis fight 2.0, in my eyes. I know he’s got skills, but the world’s going to find out who Yoenli ‘El Diablo’ Hernandez is.”

Valle views this fight as Hernandez’s chance to impressively introduce himself to the boxing public. Gausha, 38, hasn’t been knocked out in 30 professional fights, a trend Valle hopes Hernandez changes on the Sebastian Fundora-Keith Thurman pay-per-view undercard at MGM Grand Garden Arena (8 p.m. ET; $74.99).

“If [Gausha is] coming to engage, it’s gonna be a fun fight,” Valle said. “If he comes to shell up, it’s gonna be another Terrell Gausha fight. … The first four, five rounds, [Gausha] relies a lot on his defense. And then the sixth, seventh and eighth, he picks it up. Everybody’s saying he’s going to drown Yoenli in the deeper rounds, that [Hernandez] doesn’t have enough experience. Saturday, I guess we’ll find out, right?”

While rewarding, Hernandez has found life in the United States to be emotionally exhausting at times.

When he isn’t training in Providence, Hernandez resides in Orlando, Florida, with Vanessa and their 2-year-old son, Yoenli Jr. But he has a 6-year-old daughter, Malak, from a previous relationship. She still lives in Cuba with her mom.

“The hardest decision of my life was leaving to Panama, because at the time I had a 1-year-old daughter,” Hernandez said. “I left there to make sure I could make a better life for us. But that was incredibly difficult because that was my first baby girl. Even though me and her mother aren’t together, the fact that other fathers can go and see their kids on the weekends and be able to hold them, it’s tough because I missed so much time out of her life. We talk every day over WhatsApp, but it’s still incredibly difficult not being able to reach out and touch her and make sure she’s good.”

Hernandez, 28, has been good enough in seven fights over the past two years to earn the No. 1 spot in the WBA’s rankings. He is also rated fourth by the WBC and WBO, but Hernandez and his handlers sense that, to fight for a title, he’ll have to be named mandatory challenger for WBA champ Erislandy Lara (32-3-3, 19 KOs), a fellow Cuban, or WBC champ Carlos Adames (25-1-1, 18 KOs), The Ring’s No. 1 middleweight.

Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) was stripped of the IBF belt and won’t be allowed to defend his WBO title until late this year because he tested positive for a banned substance, Meldonium, prior to a title unification fight against Lara that was canceled early in December.

The Dominican Republic’s Adames announced on social media last week, after he defeated American Austin Williams unanimously on points, that he will move up to super middleweight for his next fight. The Ring has since learned that Adames is likely to remain at middleweight and will keep his WBC belt.

Regardless, Hernandez and his team, which includes three promoters — Warriors Boxing, Heavyweight Factory and Dream Bigg Boxing — collectively hope he doesn’t have to wait much longer for his championship chance.

“What I want people to see here is we’re a different style of Cuban fighter,” Valle said. “We’re not doing the running around. We come here to fight. And I believe with that kind of style, and the way he’s adapted to it, we’re ready to fight anybody with any belt. With six fights we were talking about how we’ll fight Janibek. Everybody was saying he’s the boogeyman, and we wanted the boogeyman. All we wish is that people give us the opportunity, the shot. We just need the shot.”

Based on his mental and physical state in 2023, Hernandez is thankful that the supportive people in his life helped him begin to realize the potential he displayed in approximately 300 amateur fights.

“It’s been an amazing experience for me, coming to a place I never thought I would set foot in without being watched by the Cuban government,” Hernandez said. “Coming to Rhode Island, with my manager’s help, now I can finally understand how professional boxing is, compared to my amateur style. I’ve intertwined both of them and made it my own. But the first couple months, I was shocked. I still am shocked at times that I’m even here.”