Just last year, boxer Orlando Cruz made headlines, and this time it wasn't for his great skills on the ring. The Puerto Rico native revealed to the world that he is gay in an attempt of staying "true" to himself.
"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 said. "I have and will always be a proud Puerto Rican. I have always been and always will be a proud gay man."
Cruz debuted as a professional in 2000 and won his first world title on March 22, 2008. The fighter, who thanks his mom for his success after enrolling him in boxing lessons, says that if it wasn't for her, he would've ended up either in jail or dead because of his "explosive" attitude.
Although Cruz is not the first gay man to fight professionally, his revelation makes him the first to speak openly about it while being active in the sport, and now, he sat down with Univision in a tell-all interview where he, for the first time, opens up about his first homosexual experience.
At 18 years old, Orlando qualified to compete at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, representing Puerto Rico, and although he didn't win the medals he was hoping for, the whole experience helped him figure out a very personal struggle.
Cruz met a man with whom he became intimate with at the Summer Games.
"I had already been feeling attracted to the same sex, and I thought to myself 'What have I done? Why am I feeling this when I already have a girlfriend?'"
"I didn't want to lead a double life, I wanted to be myself," the boxer added. "But it was very hard. Why? Because this is a profession where most people are very sexist."
The fear of becoming a target outside the ring, made him keep his sexuality a secret.
"That made me stay quiet for many years. I had a 'friend,' but we weren't in a formal relationship because I wasn't sure if that's what I really wanted."
When he returned home from Sydney, he opened up to his mother.
"We cried together. She said she would never turn her back on me because I'm her son, and I had her full support no matter what I was. Those words filled me up with hope," he said.
However, his father's reaction wasn't the same. "My world fell down, it was too much for me to handle," said Orlando Cruz Sr.
While young Orlando was still struggling with his sexual identity, he decided to take the big step and go pro. He moved to Buffalo, NY, and started fighting his way up.
Nevertheless, rumors started surfacing, and people would go to his fights to call him derogatory names. That pressure, and not having his father's support, brought him down.
Eventually his father accepted him, but there was still one thing Orlando Jr. needed to do, and he finally gathered up the courage to reveal in an interview he is gay.
"It was a lot of baggage that wasn't letting me breathe. So I said 'I'm going to do this. It doesn't matter who likes it or not, It's my life, I want to be free.'"
"I want to be known as Orlando Cruz, a great boxer and athlete who brought many triumphs to Puerto Rico. I want to break all stereotypes."
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