Orlando Cruz becomes first active boxer to announce he is gay

No sport does divisions like boxing. When they had boxing at the casino, I'd regularly cover fights for the WBC Caribbean heavyweight championship ... and I'm in California.

 

He really should be a welterweight, but he's light in his loafers so he made the lower weight class.

 

One of my Facebook friends provided this bit of intelligent commentary. I think it's a Jamaican dialect, but this guy is not Jamaican. He tends to follow these posts with a plug for the party he's promoting at a local nightclub.

"What has this world come to? A world rated professional boxer has come out as a gay. He must really be good at 'skipping' rope in the gym. Imagine losing to a batty bwoy? What happens when you're fighting him and you get hurt, do you clinch? I dunno I would prolly take a knee, LOL. "

 

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that people on this board would rag on what title he's fighting for, or bring up Paret-Griffith.

I say kudos to Cruz, and good for him, and the sooner it doesn't matter the better off we'll all be.

 

Agreed. For those who want to mock, step in the ring and let's see what happens.

 

Eh, he's a boxer. He was going to get the crap beat out of him anyway. He just gave opponents an extra reason to do so.

 

it was only a matter of time until the resident bigot chimed in

 

I always find it interesting the way some people assume that everyone is straight until they are told otherwise. I mean, Orlando Cruz might be first active pro boxer to come out but it would be laughable to assume that he is the only active gay pro boxer. I'm sure that there are both high level boxers and MMA fighters who are gay.

On a side note, the only openly gay MMA fighter I know of is Shad Smith. The New York Times Magazine did an excellent feature (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23martial-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) on Smith a few years back. Smith's got an MMA record of 12-15-2. So, he's nowhere nearly as high in the MMA world as Cruz is in the boxing world. There is also a guy named Dakota Cochrane who while straight did do some gay porn. Cochrane lost a qualifying bout for the last season of The Ultimate Fighter but he has talent (he has beaten some good guys) and he is probably going to end up in the UFC at some point. The UFC were fully aware of his porn career when he got a shot at being on The Ultimate Fighter. So, his porn career won't be a barrier to entry.

 

I suspect that is true. I suspect you could say that about any group of people: doctors, lawyers, journalists, athletes, even clergy.

I suspect far fewer want to come out and go public about their abominations, knowing nothing good will come from it.

 

That this hasn't been acknowledged yet is criminal. Holy shit, I laughed.

 

It didn't show up on my screen.

 

Yeah, I laughed too. Should have acknowledged it.

Always found it funny when he would make hisStar Wars comment, "Flamenco strikes back! Return of Don!"