Included in that streak was a win over Puerto Rican Gregorio Benitez (brother of International Boxing Hall of Fame member Wilfred Benitez), a 7 wins, 1 loss prospect, by a six rounds unanimous decision on Friday, November 17, 1972, at the Madison Square Garden in New York, as part of a show that had Esteban De Jesus beat world Lightweight champion Roberto Duran in a non-title main event.
[5] A series of consecutive setbacks followed the second fight with Eduardo Santiago, as Fernandez then lost three contests in a row: to 22 wins, 3 losses and 3 draws Walter Seeley by 10 rounds unanimous decision on October 23, 1973,[4] to Puerto Rican contender, 17 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws Edwin Viruet on March 8, 1974, at the Madison Square Garden,[4] and to fellow Dominican, Ezequiel "Cocoa" Sánchez by decision in 12 rounds on June 15, 1974, in what constituted Fernandez's first contest at his home-country as the bout was held in the Dominican Republic's capital city of Santo Domingo.
Fernandez rebounded from those three losses by defeating the veteran Puerto Rican contender Frankie Otero, 43 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws coming in, twice in a row: first on Tuesday, January 7, 1975, at the Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, by a ten rounds unanimous decision,[4] and then on Tuesday, February 11 of the same year at the same place, also by ten rounds decision, albeit this time by a majority one and in the main event of the boxing show that night.
[4] The win against Amaya and his two next wins, against previously undefeated Ray Lunny III (22-0-3), whom Fernandez dropped in round nine en route to a twelve rounds unanimous decision at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California on Friday, August 22, 1975[4] and against Ray Lampkin (32-4-1), whom Fernandez dropped in round one and who was defeated by the Dominican by ten rounds unanimous decision on a program headlined by a Saoul Mamby fight on February 6, 1976, at the Madison Square Garden in New York,[4] allowed Fernandez to be ranked and qualify for a world championship fight for the first time in his career, despite a setback in his next contest, when he was outpointed on June 15 at the Nassau Coliseum in Nassau, New York by then-undefeated Vicente Mijares (10–0) as part of a program headlined by George Foreman's second win over Joe Frazier.
Fernandez fought Roberto Duran, widely considered one of the best boxers in history by experts and other boxers such as International Boxing Hall of Fame member Barry McGuigan,[6] for Duran's World Boxing Association's world Lightweight title on Saturday, January 29, 1977, at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida.
Fernandez put serious resistance but was down by a considerable margin on the scorecards when Duran was finally able to stop him at 2 minutes and sixteen seconds of round thirteen to retain the championship.
[8] The loss to Duran was followed by Fernandez with three wins in a row against more or less obscure opponents with combined records of 18 wins, 38 losses and 2 draws, then a draw against 16-6-2 Larry Stanton (in a contest scored by Sam Irom for Fernandez 5-4 but as a 5–5 tie by Joe Santarpia and 6-4 for Stanton by Harold Lederman) as part of a March 2, 1978, program at the Felt Forum which was headlined by a bout between Mike Rossman and Yaqui Lopez,[4] and then, Fernandez faced another all-time great in former WBA world Featherweight and then current WBC world Junior Lightweight champion, Nicaragua's Alexis Arguello, who was actively seeking a third divisional world title in the Lightweight division.
So, after a win over Isidro "Gino" Perez, [4] (who would die of an injury sustained during another boxing contest a few years later) [4] and a very close but unanimous 12 rounds decision loss to 1976 boxing Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis, Jr. at the Resorts International in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after dropping Davis to the canvas in round two on Saturday, February 23, 1980,[4] Fernandez faced WBA world Lightweight champion, Hilmer Kenty, a hard-hitting, 19-0 with 15 wins by knockout boxer, at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday, November 8, 1980.
Fernandez took the rest of 1981 off, then went up in division to the Junior Welterweight one, debuting there in 1982 with three wins in a row over mostly obscure opposition as the three fighters he faced that year had a combined record of 14-8.