Several sports experts are saying featherweight boxer Orlando Cruz may have recently made boxing history when he recently announced to the world that he is a “proud gay man.”
Cruz, 31, is a Puerto Rican native. He told USA Today that “I’ve been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself. I want to try to be the best role model I can be for kids who might look into boxing as a sport and a professional career.”
He also told the newspaper that “I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man,” according to a recent article in the Huffington Post.
Cruz is a former Olympian who competed for Puerto Rico at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and has been fighting professionally since December 2000. He will give Telemundo an exclusive interview before his next fight, scheduled for Oct. 19 in Kissimmee, Fla.
According to many sporting magazines, Cruz is the first boxer to make such an announcement will still working as a professional fighter. Emile Griffith, a welterweight and middleweight champion who fought in the ’50s and ’60s, told Sports Illustrated he was bisexual years after his career ended.
Bleacher Report columnist Michael Walters praised Cruz’s decision, writing that “for Cruz to come out while still actively participating in what has to be considered one of, if not the, most macho sports is truly brave.”
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