FLORIDA: Pro Boxer Orlando Cruz Wins First Bout After Coming Out

Last night pro boxer Orlando Cruz won his first match since he came out.

These last two weeks have weighed heavily on Orlando Cruz. But as soon as he walked out to a cheering crowd displaying flags of his native Puerto Rico, boxing's first openly gay fighter could finally breathe and do what he came to do, slugging his way to a victory by unanimous decision over Jorge Pazos. "That was my moment, my opportunity, my event," Cruz said Friday night after the bout, his mother Dominga Torres-Rivera seated beside him. "And I won." Cruz was touched by the support on display at the Kissimmee Civic Center outside of Orlando, the latest in a continual outpouring since his announcement two weeks ago that made him the first active male athlete in a major sport to come out. "I was very happy that they respect me. That's what I want - them to see me as a boxer, as an athlete and as a man in every sense of the word."

And that's some gay history right there, brothers. The most amazing part? The crowd went WILD!