Pat Manuel Making History As A Trans Masculine Pro Boxer

Before transition, he fought in the 2012 US Olympic trials.  He's endured physical rehab, chest surgery, the fight to cut through red tape and get licensed as a boxer, and a multiyear journey to get to this point.

But tomorrow night, 33 year old Pat Manuel will step into a ring in Indio, CA  and make history.

"We keep being told that to be a high level successful athlete, you have to be born in a man's body." says Cyd Zeigler of Outsports. "and that anyone born in a man's body has an automatic advantage over anyone born in a female body.  People like Pat are showing that transgender men can compete at the highest levels against cisgender men."

"It is not just powerful for the trans community, but it really should open our eyes to the foolishness of the stereotypes we've always had about gender in sports." Zeigler continues.

"I'm not the type of person that is just going in there for a participation trophy, my goal is to win,"said Manuel. "My mindset isn't really thinking about the history of this.  It's more thinking about going in there and performing as an athlete."

He's correct about that point.  It isn't his job to think about the historic trailblazing nature of this bout.  Thinking and talking about the history of this event is my job. 

He'll become the first out trans masculine person to box professionally when he takes on Mexico's Hugo Aguilar tomorrow night.  Manuel has already fought an amateur bout as a trans masculine person back in 2016, which he won by decision in three rounds. 

It'll be interesting to see what happens in his first professional bout.

I hope that debut as a professional boxer is a successful one.

Muhammad Ali 1942-2016

So saddened to hear that another one of our community icons has gone on to join the ancestors.

Muhammad Ali, 1960 light heavyweight Olympic champion, three time world boxing champion, humanitarian, father and beloved civil rights advocate passed away in a Phoenix area hospital on June 3..

Much of my childhood and teen years spanned his remarkable boxing career.  Him becoming the heavyweight champion three times.  The three fights with Joe Frazier including the 'Thrilla In Manila'. .The 'Rumble in the Jungle' in Zaire in which he rope a doped George Foreman into defeat.

While his long battle with Parkinson's .Disease robbed him of his verbal loquaciousness, he still remained one of the world's most beloved figures and humanitarian .  He helped negotiate the release of 14 American hostages before Desert Storm kicked off in 1991.    

He received the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron to start the Atlanta Games in 1996.

I also lived in his hometown of Louisville, and visited the Muhammad Ali Center several times in the period I lived there after its 2006 opening for different events..

 His hometown is also feeling the loss.

Said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer in a statement.: “The values of hard work, conviction and compassion that Muhammad Ali developed while growing up in Louisville helped him become a global icon. As a boxer, he became The Greatest, though his most lasting victories happened outside the ring. Muhammad leveraged his fame as a platform to promote peace, justice and humanitarian efforts around the world, while always keeping strong ties to his hometown. Today, Muhammad Ali’s fellow Louisvillians join the billions whose lives he touched worldwide in mourning his passing, celebrating his legacy, and committing to continue his fight to spread love and hope."
Congressman John Yarmuth (D) said in a statement, "The word champion has never fit a man better. Muhammad Ali was a champion for peace, a champion for justice, and a champion for equality. He was a man who gained fame in a violent game, but immortality as a gentle and caring soul. In the ring, there was no one better, but his contributions to humanity managed to eclipse his boxing prowess."

But to many of us, and especially those of us who grew up during the 60's and 70's, he was simply The Greatest.

Rest in power and peace Champ/  You've earned it.

What's Wrong With USA Olympic Boxing?

While reading my Facebook comments the other night checked out one from my homegirl Arianna Inurritegui Lint noting how much she loves boxing in the wake of the Marquez-Pacquiao fight and Marquez knocking him the hell out.

That got me thinking about the recently conducted Summer Olympic Games and US boxing in general.

I wondered what's happened to the US in the sport and stumbled across this interesting Bleacher Report article from August 1 discussing the topic. 

One of the things I have been disappointed about when I've watched the Summer Olympics over the last decade and a half is the boxing team.  I've probably been spoiled by watching the dominating performances of the 1976 and 1984 US Olympic boxing teams and the knowledge that our great heavyweight champs such as Floyd Patterson (1952), Muhammad Ali (1960), Joe Frazier (1964) and George Foreman (1968) were Olympic champions.  Oscar De La Hoya (1992), David Reid (1996) and Andre Ward (2004) were also golden boys before winning titles in the professional ranks as well. 

The 2012 London Games was one which will live in US Olympic infamy because the men produced ZERO medals.  It was the women that upheld the proud USA boxing tradition.

Women's boxing was added to the Olympic competition program this year, and they produced the only US boxing medals of the London Games thanks to 17 year old Claressa Shields golden win and my fellow Houstonian Marlen Esparza winning a bronze medal in her weight class.

I've noted that since the 1988 Games and the implementation of a computerized scoring system to prevent people from getting victimized by questionable judging decisions has the consequence of encouraging what Teddy Atlas calls a 'fencing with gloves' style counterintuitive to the way Americans are taught to box, the teams haven't been as good.  

Maybe that's part of a drop off in talent, or what I suspect is the fallout from talented boxers like Roy Jones, Jr and Michael Carbajal in Seoul and Floyd Mayweather, Jr had happen in Atlanta in terms of being screwed by international boxing officials during those Olympic tournaments..    

There's less incentive for a talented US boxer to bust their behinds and slog through the amateur and international ranks for a chance at a Olympic gold medal if they are going to get screwed out of it by shady officiating.

Boxing has traditionally been seen as a way out of the 'hoods and barrios, and I believe another problem with US boxing besides the disorganization at the top  and the closing of many of those neighborhood gyms that trained kids is there's not as much emphasis on the Golden Gloves youth tournaments that develop our amateur boxers and potential Olympic champions.  

During the 70's and 80's I couldn't turn on the TV locally in Houston without seeing a public service commercial for the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association with its tagline of 'A kid can't open a knife or fire a gun with boxing gloves on'.   PABA boxers were highly competitive in local and Texas Golden Gloves competition which added to its appeal.  

And speaking of TV, yanking regular boxing matches off of network TV so that greedy boxing promoters could put them on pay-per- view cable also wasn't a wise move either.  You draw talent and interest to your sport by televising it, not restricting the number of people that can see it.  It's a contributing factor in why boxing is less relevant now and you have upstarts like MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC bouts drawing huge ratings, growing international popularity and possible future Olympic medal status.
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That breakdown in the US boxing developmental system is combined with some of our better athletes in the 'hoods focusing on other sports such as football and basketball and the rise of the Cubans as international boxing powers.

Granted, the USA with 49 gold medals and 110 medals all time is far and away the all-time Olympic competition medal leader but the Cubans with 34 golds and 67 total medals are number two, have a proud tradition of their own with three time Olympic champions Teofilo Stevenson (1972, 1976, 1980) and Felix Savon (1992, 1996, 2000) and probably would have caught the USA in total medals by now had Cuba not boycotted the 1984 and 1988 games.  

But there is some serious soul searching, self examination and reorganization that needs to happen at USA Boxing if our once proud program is going to get back to the business of putting our young men and now women in the best possible position of competing for and winning international championships and Olympic medals.

2012 Olympic Watch-Marlen Esparza Starts Boxing For Gold Today

I'm keeping up with my Houston area homeboys and homegirls who are involved in the London Games, and one of the people I'm most interested in seeing is 23 year old boxer Marlen Esparza from Pasadena.

She a trailblazer in her own right in terms of not only being part of the first ever USA women's Olympic boxing team, but being the first Latina athlete to have a Cover Girl endorsement.   She's also appearing in commercials for McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other brands.

She was not only interviewed for a recent Vogue magazine article, but was also one of the people featured in CNN's most recent episode of Latino In America. 

And yeah, did I mention that Marlen is all that in the boxing ring as well?   She's a five time national champion with a 69–2 record and has been ranked number one in her weight class since she was 16.  The 97% of her fights she has won is higher than the 93% winning percentage of Muhammad Ali (88-9) and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(84–6) and the 89% Mike Tyson compiled with his 48–6 amateur record.

The birthday girl (July 29) is ready for the first ever women's Olympic boxing tournament to start.  She will compete in the 51kg flyweight classification and had to gain six pounds to do so. 

She did secure one of the tournament byes and went straight to the quarterfinal round.  She will await the winner of the match between Brazil's Erica Matos and Venezuela's Karlha Maglioccio and hopefully being a historic run to the first ever women's flyweight Olympic gold medal.

 

Happy Birthday To 'The Greatest'!

Today was also the birthday of the the best heavyweight champion of all time, Muhammad Ali.   He was born in Louisville on this date in 1942 and will always be The Greatest' to me and my generation of fight fans.