Homosexual boxer

Thread: Has there ever been an openly gay boxer?

Bit of an odd question but hear me out. Im sure there must have been some secretly gay boxers but has there been any openly gay?

I was recently reading a book called 'Looking for a fight' by David Matthews (excellent book I highly recommend it). Its a first person account that follows David Matthews himself (he is a journalist by trade) and he decides to grow a professional boxer to find out from the inside about the business, with no prior boxing/sporting experience at the age of He trains at the gym where Clinton Woods trains and Woods was saying that if there were a homosexual boxer he'd have a massive huge following and loads of fans due to the gay people. Got me wondering, has there ever been a gay boxer?

- my mates boxing blog, check it out for fight articles and battle predictions

Entertaining

In today’s world, it may be that there is no arena where homosexuality is more taboo than in men's professional sports. As barriers have fallen in the social and political realms, with increasing numbers of gay men and women coming out, male professional athletes remain stubbornly heteronormative; no currently active professional player in any of the four major American sports has ever come out as gay.

Perhaps, however, some large news emerging from the boxing world will commence to challenge those norms. On Wednesday, Puerto Rican boxer Orlando Cruz, a fringe featherweight fighter, came out publicly with the announcement that he is gay. Cruz is ranked #4 among featherweights by the World Boxing Corporation, and timed his announcement to come in the lead-up to his October 19th fight with Jorge Pazos. At 31, Cruz is hardly a neophyte in the world of pro boxing — which one must hope has helped him to organize for this moment.

In his statement, Cruz explained his motion to publicly reveal himself as "a proud gay man."

"I don't want to mask any of my identities," Cruz said. "I wish people to look at me for the human being that I am. I am a profe

Emile Griffith won world titles in three weight divisions. But the closeted homosexual boxer suffered nightmares for decades after he knocked out an opponent who&#;d called him by a gay slur, and the man subsequently died.

Although he happily hung out at gay bars, Emile Griffith remained closeted in his professional life.

Well&#; sort of&#;

Rumours abounded about the boxer from the Virgin Islands who lisped, dressed immaculately, and worked as a lady&#;s hat designer.

The Miami News described him as an over-sensitive, highly sentimental young man among a list of other traits broadly hinting at Emile&#;s sexuality.

&#;When he won, [he] went around and kissed everyone that didn&#;t duck first.&#;

Emile Griffith remained closeted for fear of the reaction of the general public and the boxing industry.

Despite constant gossip and speculation, no one ever said anything to the closeted gay boxer&#;s face.

&#;until March 24,

Emile Griffith vs Banny Paret

At the weigh-in for the title fight, Emile heard his manager say &#;Hey, see it!&#;

Turning around, he caught his Cuban opponent pretending to fck him. Benny Paret then directed a homophobic slur at Emile, in Spanish.

&#;Hey M

bisexual boxer who killed his homophobic opponent in the ring is getting a movie about his life

Emile Griffith was a professional boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands who became a world champion in the welterweight and middleweight classes, while being uncover about his bisexuality.

But as you can imagine, not everyone was open and supportive of Griffith. In a title match with Benny Paret, Paret assaulted Griffith by touching his butt while making homophobic remarks. Griffith won the bout by knockout, and Paret, who was still recovering from other injuries from his previous three fights leading up to the title match, never regained consciousness and died in the hospital 10 days later.

A new production directed by Lenny Abrahamson, who is best acknowledged for the comedy “Frank” and the Oscar-contender “Room” will explore Griffith&#;s enigmatic life, based on the book, “A Man’s World: the Double Life of Emile Griffith” by Donald McRae.