Orlando Cruz
made history when he became the world’s first openly gay boxer to come out and
to continue playing professionally.
But the Puerto
Rican athlete is ready to make history once again by fighting one more round
before he goes up against WBO interim world champion super featherweight Miguel
Berchelt.
‘We are working
hard for this fight and hope to do well. We are facing Berchelt in January or
February for the interim world title. But I have an excellent team and we have
no hurry to get to that point. We are at the time of assimilating weight and
going step by step,’ the boxer said in a report by El Vocero, a Puerto Rican
newspaper.
He will go up
against Luis Sanchez on 7 October.
‘At 35 years
old – I feel great. I know my opponent will come to fight, but I am prepared
and ready for victory and then to be crowned world champion. I’m focused on
becoming the only gay world champion in boxing history,’ he added.
Cruz is already
on a winning streak.
He won his last
fight in July after dedicating it to the victims of the Pulse shooting in Orlando,
Florida. Cruz lost four friends in the mass murder that claimed the lives of 49
people.
While he was
unable to attend the victims’ funerals because of training, he has been to
visit Pulse to lay down gloves and flowers at the memorial.
When the boxer came
out in 2012, he said: ‘They can call me maricón, or faggot, and I don’t care.
Let them say it because they can’t hurt me now. I am relaxed. I feel so happy.
‘But to make
this announcement to the whole world I had to be very strong. … I am proud to
be Puerto Rican, just like I am proud to be a gay man.’
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