Orlando Cruz
Orlando Cruz 
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|---|---|
| Data | |
| Birth Name | Orlando Cruz Torres |
| Weight class | Featherweight |
| nationality |
 puerto rican
|
| birthday | July 1, 1981 |
| place of birth | Puerto Rico |
| style | Legal display |
| size | 1.63 m |
| Combat Statistics | |
| Struggles | 34 |
| Victories | 25th |
| Knockout victories | 13 |
| Defeats | 7th |
| draw | 2 |
Orlando Cruz Torres (born July 1, 1981 in Yabucoa ) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer . Cruz became the first boxer to come out as gay during his professional career. Before that, Mark Leduc and Emile Griffith had come out after their careers .
Career
Cruz began boxing at the age of seven and won 178 of 189 fights as an amateur. He was seven Puerto Rican champion and took after winning the American qualifier in Buenos Aires at the Summer Olympics in 2000 in Sydney part, however, where he in the bantamweight almost lost in the preliminary round with 10:11 on points against Hichem Blida of Algeria.
He won his first professional fight on December 15, 2000 by knockout in the first round. After twelve more victories in a row, including against seven boxers with positive match statistics, he fought a draw against Jesús Salvador Pérez in June 2007. After a subsequent victory on points against Wilfredo Acuna (11 wins - 2 losses), he won the world championship title of the internationally rather insignificant IBA in featherweight on March 22, 2008 ; he defeated it Carlos Guevara (11-5) unanimously on points. On January 16, 2009 he surprisingly defeated the undefeated Mexican Leonilo Miranda (30-0, 28 knockout) by knockout in the fifth round.
In September 2009 he lost prematurely to Cornelius Lock and in February 2010 also prematurely against Daniel Ponce de León . After these two defeats, however, he won by knockout in the first round against Michael Franco (19-0), the WBO's Latin American featherweight championship. He then defended the title against Alejandro Delgado (15-5), Jorge Pazos (19-4) and Aalan Martinez (14-1).
On October 12, 2013, he fought in Las Vegas for the WBO Featherweight Championship, but was knocked out by the three-time title holder Orlando Salido in the 7th round. In April 2014 he also lost on points against Gamalier Rodríguez (23-2). In 2015 he defeated Edwin Lopez (25-4) and Gabino Cota (18-4), making him North American champion of the WBO.
In November 2016, he lost in the fight for the WBO lightweight world title against Terry Flanagan . In 2017 he lost to Jose Lopez (18-1) and in 2018 he boxed another draw against Lamont Roach (16-0).
Web links
- Orlando Cruz in the BoxRec database
- Orlando Cruz in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
- Sueddeutsche: A proud gay man
- spiegel.de: Boxer Orlando Cruz comes out
Individual evidence
- ↑ queer.de: Orlando Cruz wins first fight after coming out
- ↑ Amrai Coen: They call him a duck. Orlando Cruz is a professional boxer. He's gay too. Since the world has known that, he has had to endure the hatred of the audience, but makes more money than ever before. At the weekend he will fight for the world title - and for recognition , in: Die Zeit, No. 43 of October 17, 2013, pp. 17–19, here p. 18.
- ↑ Amrai Coen: They call him a duck. Orlando Cruz is a professional boxer. He's gay too. Since the world has known that, he has had to endure the hatred of the audience, but makes more money than ever before. At the weekend he fought for the world title - and for recognition , in: Die Zeit, No. 43 of October 17, 2013, pp. 17-19.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cruz, Orlando |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Puerto Rican boxer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 1, 1981 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Yabucoa |