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Bullfighter cuffed for lack of cojones

Flees ring to face breach of contract rap

Apprentice bullfighter Christian Hernández decided on Sunday that he'd prefer to pursue another line of work, fleeing the ring to derisive whistles from his fellow Mexicans and proceeding directly to a local police station on a breach of contract rap.

Hernández, 22, blew his big chance in Mexico City's prestigious taurine entertainment arena in spectacular style. He failed to kill his first bull in the alloted time, and the beast was withdrawn alive from the ring - "a disgrace for any bullfighter", as Radio Televisión Española puts it.

His second attempt proved even more humiliating, as he suffered total failure in the cojones department and legged it to safety (video here). He subsequently returned to the ring, but only to remove his ponytail and wave it at the less than impressed crowd in a symbolic gesture of adios to his career.

Hernández admitted shortly after: "Look, I think in the first place you have to be honest with yourself, and I didn't have the skill and I didn't have the bollocks... I had a tough time and I prefer to quit."

That wasn't the end of the matter, though. Poor old Hernández was arrested for breach of contract and hauled before a judge, who fined him.

The newly-unemployed Mexican was unrepentant, and insisted: "My decision is final. I was very afraid and I don't want to be a bullfighter."

In mitigation, Hernández was gored in the leg by a bull a few months back, and the recent incident involving Julio Aparicio at Madrid's San Isidro festival (more here, not for the faint-hearted), may have contributed to his opinion that bullfighting is a sport best left others with bigger huevos and substantial medical insurance policies. ®

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