In a sport where notoriety equals money, boxing's first openly gay fighter, Orlando Cruz, is in line for a big payday.
Prior to his Friday night unanimous-decision victory over Jorge Pazos, Cruz made it public that he is a "proud gay man," according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
This courageous announcement pushed the 31-year-old into the brightest spotlight of his career, which is not to diminish his career achievements.
Cruz has had a fine career. He is 19-2-1 and the WBC's fourth-ranked featherweight—accomplishments that should put him in the conversation for any title fight. However, with his new place in the public consciousness, Cruz is now a more appealing option for those title fights.
Boxing is in a serious fight with relevancy. The sport has only a small handful of fighters who move the needle and carry enough name power where their involvement in a fight will drum up interest, no matter who the opponent is.
Cruz has been limited in his quest to join that select group due to his lack of crowd-pleasing power; the speedy fighter has just nine KOs in his 19 victories, but his announcement more than makes up for any drawing power he loses with his lack of KOs.
His dominant performance following his announcement cements that status.
Against Pazos, Cruz's speedy footwork took over. Cruz was at a reach disadvantage, but his defense negated that, and it opened him up to land some nice counterattacks and wear Pazos out. This led to, as Fox points out, an easy 118-110, 116-111, 118-110 victory.
It was a nearly flawless performance that reinforces his candidacy to be considered an elite fighter. It's a status he had been trying to reclaim since picking up his first two losses in back-to-back fights to end 2009 and begin 2010.
This was Cruz's third straight win since that bad stretch, and all have been convincing. He won his first two, in this stretch of victories, via KOs, and he proved in the process that he is still on top of his game.
So now, all of a sudden, Cruz has a legitimate in-ring argument at a big-money fight, and he has the drawing power. Any fight with Cruz is going to get some press, and that will only be increased if it is a title fight. This fact will not be lost on promoters.
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