Whicker: 'Invisible' Jezreel Corrales will appear at Forum

LOS ANGELES — Rafael Pedroza is a former flyweight champion, with a brother, Eusebio, in the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Rafael watches fighters from Panama, looking for a heart of gold or, preferably, two more Hands of Stone. One day he got excited by a guy who used his brain.

When he watched Jezreel Corrales operate, he bestowed a nickname: “El Invisible.”

At City of Angels Gym the other day, someone asked Corrales why.

Corrales smiled and began ducking and dodging.

You can’t hit what you can’t see.

“Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Roberto Duran were the reasons I first went to the gym,” Corrales said. “Floyd was able to box for a long time because he never got hit much in the face. That’s my style. To be a boxing artist, you need to hit but not catch.”

So nobody was expecting Corrales to play hardball last year, when he went to Japan in search of Takashi Uchiyama’s WBA super-featherweight title.

Corrales was a 5-to-1 underdog, and not because he had to take two 10-hour flights to get there,

Uchiyama, 36, had the longest reign of any existing champ. He first won the title in 2010 and had defended it 12 times. He was also undefeated. If you’re undefeated at 36, you’re ahead of the game.

Thanks to Corrales, the game caught up. His left hand decked Uchiyama in the second round. There would not be a third. Corrales sent Uchiyama down twice more and walked away with an unforeseen belt.

“I felt the whole stadium go silent,” Corrales said. “I was optimistic when I went over there. He has two arms, just like me. I felt good about my preparation.”

This was only Corrales’ eighth knockout in 22 fights. He was asked to fill out another application.

The rematch with Uchiyama was last Dec. 31, again in Japan. This time Corrales was floored in the sixth round, but he cleared his head and pulled out a split decision.

“I don’t know why it was so close,” Corrales said. “I can count with one hand the number of times he touched me.”

Two wins on the road against such a storied champ means you’re invisible no longer.

Corrales signed with Golden Boy, and Saturday night he will meet Robinson Castellanos (22-11) in the co-main event at The Forum.

This card promises to punch above its weight, or at least its reputation.

The headliner is Miguel Berchelt’s first defense of his WBC super featherweight title, against Takashi Miura. They were on the same blood-soaked card at Fantasy Springs Resort in January.

Berchelt dominated and cut up Francisco Vargas and got his 28th TKO in a 31-1 career.

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Miura, who lost a Fight of the Year to Vargas in 2015, took a bleak beating from Mickey Roman but, like a vampire, crushed Roman’s ribs with a 10th-round body shot and finished him in the 12th.

Light-heavyweight Joe Smith Jr. also retus to The Forum, where he ended Beard Hopkins’ career by knocking him through the ropes last December. He’s fighting Sullivan Barrera, with the winner angling to meet Sergey Kovalev.

Corrales is 26. He lost his second fight ever, in 2009. He survived back-to-back split decisions against Roberto Giono. Until he went to Japan he had never competed outside Panama. Even his first Uchiyama fight went untelevised back home, thanks to expense and pessimism. Few dreamed that Corrales would retu as the 30th champion the isthmus has produced.

This is his first trip to the U.S. “This is a beautiful city,” Corrales said, “but everything is so far.”

Corrales said he has spent much time with Roberto Duran, the Panamanian idol, for whom an arena is named. “I’ve been to his house,” he said. “He tells me to be quick and hit hard.”

The networks would advise the same thing. “Tune in to watch some boxing strategy,” is not a compelling promo campaign.

But HBO is doing this “Boxing After Dark” card. It obviously sees a future in Corrales, who dyes his hair blond and has a winning smile that he is bound and determined to protect.

Beyond Corrales and Berchelt, no division has more intriguing matchups than super-featherweight.

Vasyl Lomachenko, the WBO champ, is probably the best boxer alive. Gervonta Davis (IBF) is the best fighter developed by Mayweather Promotions. His next fight will be on the Mayweather-McGregor card Aug. 26, and he’s only 22.

A 36-year-old war machine named Orlando Salido is available for anyone who dares volunteer.

A win over either, or against Berchelt, and Corrales’ face will be on billboards and buses in Panama City.

“It’s not quite there yet,” he said. “I’m low-profile.”

Invisible is nice. Untouchable is better.

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