Featherweight boxer Orlando Cruz, who came out of the closet several weeks ago, won his first match as an openly gay boxer Friday night in Kissimmee, Fla. He beat Jorge Pazos by unanimous decision. From ESPN:
“That was my moment, my opportunity, my event,” Cruz said Friday night after the bout, his mother, Dominga Torres-Rivera, seated beside him. “And I won.”
“That was my moment, my opportunity, my event,” Cruz said Friday night after the bout, his mother, Dominga Torres-Rivera, seated beside him. “And I won.”
Cruz was touched by the support on display at the Kissimmee Civic Center outside Orlando, the latest in a continual outpouring since his announcement two weeks ago that made him the first active male athlete in a major sport to come out.
“I was very happy that they respect me. That’s what I want — them to see me as a boxer, as an athlete and as a man in every sense of the word,” he said.
Cruz hopes the next stop for him is a shot at a world title.
Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images
