Orlando Cz: Boxer dreams of beg first openly gay world champn | CNN

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'

"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.

ORLANDO CZ: THE GAY BOXER WHO IS BREAKG BARRIERS

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.

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. 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.

ORLANDO CZ: BOXER DREAMS OF BEG FIRST OPENLY GAY WORLD CHAMPN

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.

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.

PUERTO RIN BOXER ORLANDO CZ ANNOUNC HE'S GAY

And he was gay. "The traer remembers Cz beatg up another fighter who had tnted him a few years ago for beg gay.

PUERTO RIN ORLANDO CZ IS FIRST OPENLY GAY BOXER

A uple of my s are gay or lbian. He said: 'Hey, do what you gotta do, you fuckg 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. Cz also rells the homophobic murr of a close iend, a transvte, San Juan.

ORLANDO CZ, EL PRIMER BOXEADOR ABIERTAMENTE GAY QUE PODRíA RONARSE MPEóN MUNDIAL

"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.

He knows that, whatever happens, he will make history as the first publicly gay fighter to challenge for a world tle.

ORLANDO CZ COM OUT AS FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSNAL BOXER

I'm a gay man, but I'm also a boxer.

ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'

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. 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. However, private he has obvly spoken to other boxers facg the same dilemma he did last has received a lot of media attentn this week (Getty) (Getty Imag)"Perhaps there are other gay boxers and perhaps they are too sred to say anythg, " Cz says.

BOXER ORLANDO CZ A 'PROUD GAY MAN'

" Hopefully, there will not be a reverse wch-hunt boxg, like there is other sports, where people on the outsi bee fixated on outg more gay athlet; the people boxg simply don't re.

ORLANDO CZ BE BOXG'S FIRST OPENLY GAY MAN

"Gay, so what? " All boxers world tle fights have to unrgo and pass a route HIV tt and plenty, none of whom said they were gay, have failed the has dited Saturday's fight to Ee Griffh, one of the greatt boxers history, who died this summer after admtg late his life that he had slept wh both men and women. He was om a time when homosexuals were not lled "gay" and he hated the word once was ed to scribe him when he fally end three s of speculatn.

The Cuban never revered and died a few days emerged later that Paret had lled Griffh a marin, the Spanish word for homosexual, and had touched him appropriately when the pair weighed for the fight; Paret was naked at the time, which is not unmon for a tle fight. There has always been a bate about whether Paret meant or was jt sayg to get unr Griffh's sk; Griffh told me that Paret had been ma to say , but that was heartfelt and meant, which is good enough for late great Ee Griffh me out after he retired (Getty) (Getty Imag)Griffh had stggled wh his sexualy throughout his reer and retirement and 1992 was left for ad after five thugs on a "fag-bashg" rampage attacked him wh baseball bats outsi a gay club New York. "This fight is for Ee bee he never had the backg and support that I have had, " add Saturday Cz starts as a heavy unrdog agast former champn Salido but will still leave the rg as the first openly gay male boxer to fight for a world tle.

He proposed to Manuel on Facebook earlier this year and, has to be said, if he was thkg of makg the transn to gay fighter low-key, then planng a same-sex marriage was a bold move. Cz was also a first-year ductee to the Natnal Gay and Lbian Sports Hall of Fame Chigo this summer, alongsi Greg Louganis and Marta n also really fight and the thls bs of boxg, a sport that has not really changed 150 years, that is all that matters; mak no difference if you are black, whe, gay, straight, male, female, nice, unpleasant, Christian, Mlim, ugly or handsome, as long as you have guts and n have a fight.