The Puerto Rin, who beme the first boxer to clare publicly that he was gay, tells Donald McRae of his long and trmatic stggle agast fear and prejudice
Contents:
- ORLANDO CZ: 'I'M GAY, BUT I'M ALSO A BOXER. THIS IS MY TIME'
- ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS
- ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN
- PUERTO RIN BOXER ORLANDO CZ ANNOUNC HE'S GAY
- PUERTO RIN ORLANDO CZ IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER
- ORLANDO CZ, EL PRIMER BOXEADOR ABIERTAMENTE GAY QUE PODRíA RONARSE MPEóN MUNDIAL
- ORLANDO CZ COM OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL BOXER
- ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'
- BOXER ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'
- ORLANDO CZ BE BOXG'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN
ORLANDO CZ: 'I'M GAY, BUT I'M ALSO A BOXER. THIS IS MY TIME'
Donald McRae go behd the scen Buffalo as Orlando Cz, boxg's first openly gay fighter, prepar for his reer-fg world tle bout * orlando cruz gay *
"There are only four gay bars Buffalo, " Cz said, swchg om Spanish to English, "and they're not so excg. "Cz lghed bee, a year after g out as boxg's first publicly gay fighter, he uld afford to be open.
The ia of a gay boxer, which he troduced so lmly last October, has been accepted. Yet his dreamier notn – of beg the world's first gay world champn – would brg Cz the money and rpect he has long, or Orlando, as De León lls his 32-year-old fighter, sed when I disappeared to the traer's kchen soon after we arrived. He is the same age as Cz but has had 53 fights – 30 more than the Puerto Rin whose rerd of 20 ws, a draw and two feats was shadowed by a ght battle over his took years for Cz to fd the urage to make history as a gay fighter.
They wonr if a gay man n w a world tle. He sks to a chair, the ms of boxg sho and bags strewn around him, remblg a grty old fighter rather than a gay ns down his sunken face like tears.
ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS
Puerto Rin n make history by beg the first openly gay world champn on Saturday. He tells Steve Bunce about g out the macho world of boxg * orlando cruz gay *
Last October, durg his first newspaper terview as a gay fighter, Cz told me how he ed to cry wh his mother, Domga. He even impli that Salido, as a Mexin, might be troubled by facg a gay fighter.
ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN
Orlando Cz will create history by beg the first openly gay boxg world champn should he feat Terry Flanagan on Saturday. * orlando cruz gay *
He will have his md that he's fightg a homosexual for the world tle.
"Is he suggtg Salido might be homophobic? "He's profsnal wh me but Mexins often have somethg homophobic them.
PUERTO RIN BOXER ORLANDO CZ ANNOUNC HE'S GAY
* orlando cruz gay *
He won't want to lose to a gay man. He will want to make a statement bee I'm gay.
Griffh fought more world champnship rounds than any other fighter, even Sugar Ray Robson and Muhammad Ali, and he was gay.
PUERTO RIN ORLANDO CZ IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER
Orlando Cz has been happily retired sce 2018, but 11 years after g out, is still the only openly gay man boxg. * orlando cruz gay *
It was an early troductn, for me, to the urage and cency of some boxg plan had been that I would take Cz to meet Griffh – even if severe mentia had ed the former champn – so there would be a poignant enunter between boxg's only openly gay fighters. "I'm fightg for my fay, my traer, my team, everyone who wrote to me around the world sce I me out, as well as the lbian-gay-bi-transgenr muny, " Cz says. And he was gay.
ORLANDO CZ, EL PRIMER BOXEADOR ABIERTAMENTE GAY QUE PODRíA RONARSE MPEóN MUNDIAL
Orlando Cz out as the first openly gay boxer * orlando cruz gay *
"The traer remembers Cz beatg up another fighter who had tnted him a few years ago for beg gay.
A uple of my s are gay or lbian. He said: 'Hey, do what you gotta do, you fuckg gay...
ORLANDO CZ COM OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL BOXER
Orlando Cz, the No. 4 ranked WBO featherweight fighter, has released a statement sayg that he is "a proud gay man." * orlando cruz gay *
A fuckg gay beatg you up? I'm a gay man – and a fighter.
"Marriage between gay men is banned Puerto Ri, as many stat of Ameri, and so their stggle is not over.
ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'
Cz also rells the homophobic murr of a close iend, a transvte, San Juan. "I would love to have kids, " he says and José will have to marry New York and try to adopt children away om Puerto Ri where, aga, the notn of gay parents is illegal.
"It's better I go to church than a gay bar, " he says as we walk to St Joseph's where De León's 11-year-old son, Angel, is an altar boy. Am suggted that, even recently, a fight featurg a gay boxer would have led to the appearance of "a thoand protters.
BOXER ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'
He knows that, whatever happens, he will make history as the first publicly gay fighter to challenge for a world tle. I'm a gay man, but I'm also a boxer. He was gay and like all boxers, at all levels, he was judged on whether he uld fight and not on his sexual preferenc; the Pounr, who wore pk, was a nice guy but not much of a fighter and nobody held that agast Saturday Las Vegas, Orlando Cz, which is his real name, will bee the first openly gay boxer to w a world tle if he n overe the odds and beat Orlando Salido for the vant WBO featherweight tle.
ORLANDO CZ BE BOXG'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN
Cz announced he was gay last year, never lost his promoter, never lost his rankg and never lost a sgle iend om si the ugly bs of boxg. "Cz fought for Puerto Ri at the Sydney Olympics 2000 and has been a ge ntenr for a uple of years and gay for a lot longer.
"I'm a boxer first, I want to be a world champn and remembered that way and not as a gay boxer, " he the Neti, Christy Mart, another boxg pneer, said somethg siar about women the sport: "I fight for Christy Mart and not for women's rights to box. " Mart, who has sce survived a murr attempt when her hband shot and knifed her, is now retired and volved a gay relatnship.
"Boxg n be a macho sport and I have heard some gay slurs, " says Cz. "However, Cz, who is 32, is not a mpaigner for gay rights jt yet and he has polely refed all attempts to csa on behalf of other gay athlet, men like him stgglg to e to terms wh tellg the people they pete wh, or for, that they are gay.