Homophobia and Transphobia in the sport of Boxing
The sport of boxing. There is nothing like it. Fighters not only battle themselves, but the other opponent. There is no team to blame in losing, only oneself. Though there have been those that have tried to blame loss on external factors, like Larry Holmes losing in a rematch versus Michael Spinks, Julio Cesar Chavez hilariously blaming referee Richard Steele in his unexpected loss to Frankie Randall, recently Ryan Garcia blaming the hydration clause in his KO loss to Gervonta Davis or Hannah Gabriel blaming testing positive on PEDs in her scheduled rematch against Claressa Shields, on pet ointment; no one is in the ring to help you. As intriguing as the sport is for the drama of being the theater of the unexpected and human chess, it must be seen for what it is: a blood sport, filled with despicable events and behavior. Homophobia and transphobia are an unfortunate part of boxing, and despite measures to move the culture of the sport forward, this ugly aspect remains. I’ve been a fan of the sport since I was a child, long before my transition to female, and was especially interested in the history as I was growing up.
March 24th, 1962 is a day in boxing history that lives forever. It was on this day that Emile Griffith put his welterweight world title on the line in third go round against Cuban Benny “Kid” Paret. During the final weigh in of the 15 round bout, Paret disdainfully called Griffith a “maricon”, and in the 12th round of their bout, Griffith, living life as a gay man in the closet, had unleashed all the anger bottled inside on the Cuban. Griffith had Paret pinned in the corner and unleashed a sickening salvo of 27 unanswered punches to which Paret slumped on the canvas. The film from an ABC broadcast is unsettling, Ruby Goldstein, considered the top New York referee at the time was incredibly late in his stoppage, and the consequences of this led to him not working a bout ever again. More severely,boxing was pulled from National TV. Twenty years later in 1982, Ray Mancini’s stoppage of Duk Koo Kim resulting in Kim’s death lead to networks no longer airing fights in prime time, and shortening bouts to 12 rounds from 15. Griffith, was never the same after the Paret bout, though he would again become champion — having been irritated by the weigh in fracas, and rumors rippling about his sexuality, he stated “I ain’t never been called no faggot”. Paret passed 10 days following the bout, and his manager Manuel Alfaro who never had Paret’s best interests, was reported to say he had “to find another boy”. As Griffith ailed with dementia in his later years, there was some semblance of closure as he met Benny Paret Jr, the elder Paret’s son. Griffith was recently celebrated with the opera Champion which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera, scored by the great trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard. Though I did not get a chance to see it, the opera explores the duality of Griffith’s sexuality with the brutal machismo of boxing, and the often negative connotation homosexuality has in the Black community.
Fast forward to 2013, Puerto Rican Orlando “Fenomeno” Cruz becomes the first openly gay boxer to challenge for a world title. This was historic at the time, and I clearly remember applauding his decision to be out and fighting for a world championship. Here, we had one of the top ranked fighters at the time challenging for an alphabet soup title, and I at least expected he would be a ground breaker and encourage other fighters to be as courageous at the time, but it was just a blip on the radar. There have been homophobic events in boxing’s recent history, including Liam Smith making homophobic slurs at Chris Eubank Jr, to which the son of former middleweight legend Chris Eubank responded by wearing a rainbow wristband, in what seemed like a mockery to the community. Manny Pacquiao has also made homophobic comments in the past as has Floyd Mayweather Jr. We also lest not forget Ricardo Mayorga’s slurs at Oscar DeLaHoya prior to their bout, and DeLaHoya promoted Ryan Garcia was at the end of homophobic prods from Gervonta Davis in the press lead up.
It’s all very tired and lame, the barbs at masculinity and being gay — the sport hasn’t grown up in this regard and likely never will. These kind of comments are the norm at Boxingscene.com’s forums, where adult older men call each other gay, princesses and call fighters they dislike feminine names all the time. It’s childish. Compensating much? I think so. The same goes for fightnews.com where after Claressa Shields’ non descript victory over late substitute, the gutsy Maricela Cornejo,on June 3rd people were questioning Shields’ gender identity, calling her a man.
One reason boxing will likely never advance to accept gay and trans athletes is the older fanbase, consisting of older Black, Latino, and British males, female fight fans exist quite plentifully as well, just not as visible. The “boy’s club” mentality tends to shut fans out as does an elitism that comes with fans who’ve watched for years. Women in my father’s side of the family have grown up with the sport, as have Latina friends of mine who remember Roberto Duran, Felix Trinidad, DeLaHoya, Miguel Cotto, Edwin “Chapo" Rosario and Hector Camacho especially. Historically the sport has had a very tribal fan base and is largely a product of the ghetto. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the sport was largely segregated. White fighters refused to fight Black fighters, some of whom were some of the best the white fighter could have fought. There wasn’t just a world title but a Colored World Title. In the 20’s-40’s Irish and Italian fighters were very popular when Joe Louis broke the color barrier, with the greatest of all time Sugar Ray Robinson, and Henry Armstrong being wildly popular as well. Since the 70’s boxing has retained strong fan bases in Black, Latino, Italian and Eastern European communities. Returning to homophobia I seem to recall either outward or implied homophobic slurs from Roberto Duran (preceding the first Sugar Ray Leonard bout especially, questioning SRL’s manhood) and when I was 9 years old I recall Vinny Pazienza tossing insults at Hector Camacho in the lead up to their 1990 welterweight bout.
Attempts At LGBTQ+ inclusion in Boxing
Boxing making attempts to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community at face value is well meaning but seems to just be another empty attempt at openness from a corporate and organizational standpoint. Australia is attempting to bridge the gap by introducing the World Gay Boxing Championships, which were held February of this year. Their mission statement:
“We are holding the world’s first accredited amateur boxing competition for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies from 18–22 February 2023. Everyone is welcome with straight people able to compete. The competition is about inclusion and showing boxing is sport welcoming everyone. The championships will be held at Australian Turf Club’s The Winx Stand conducted under Boxing Australia rules and sanctioned by Boxing Australia NSW. There will be Australian and international boxers competing the over five days.”
My question is this: How is this going to legitimize and make gay and trans boxers accepted in the mainstream? It isn’t. I looked at the list of allies and supporters including 2 time world titlist Gary St. Clair (a name only really known to hardcore fans) the WBC’s Mauricio Sulaiman (I’ll get to him in a second) and former world champion and women’s boxing pioneer Christy Martin. Martin is known for her thrilling war with Deidre Gogarty and knockout of Bethany Page on post prison Mike Tyson Don King promoted pay per view under cards in the 90’s. All this seems to be doing is creating faux damage control by an organization saying “yes, we denounce homophobia and transphobia”. Creating fight cards with all gay fighters seems like a side show attraction, that will not get mainstream appeal, at all. Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the World Boxing Council, the most corrupt sanctioning body in boxing — scratch that! ALL the sanctioning bodies are corrupt as hell! announced not long ago starting in 2023, the WBC will have a transgender division. Sulaiman, like his father, the late Jose Sulaiman is a joke — especially in his attempts to denounce things like egregious score cards, and head trauma, is nothing more than a organizational leader and talking head.
I wish to circle back to my Brittney Griner piece where I mentioned trans male fighter Patricio Manuel. Not only did Claressa Shields let her disbelief and confusion be known on social media about this idea proposed, by the WBC but Manuel especially was incensed. Manuel is a fighter in more ways than one: he is fighting to get transgender equality in boxing not by gaslighting or attention seeking displays on social media but stating an equal desire to compete. I have a ton of respect for Manuel, who competed as an amateur as a woman, being a five time national champion. His two pro fights as a trans male, albeit against very low level, limited opposition showcase a great body attack, a solid left hook and crowd pleasing style, however he is completely against the WBC’s proposition and I completely understand why. A transgender division while I think a good idea will do nothing to make transgender fighters mainstream. Manuel for one is 37 years old and how realistic would it be for Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Regis Prograis or Josh Taylor to give him a bout? It’s highly unlikely. He would not bring in any money, and because he is a biological woman I doubt any top pro AMAB fighter would give him a shot. What would make a transgender fighter mainstream? Becoming a top ranked contender and winning a title, but just like women struggle to be truly mainstream, the current way the boxing fandom is, even with younger fans brought in, as much as I’d love to see it, is unlikely. I can see a trans female or male fighter having success in Japan, but that too carries a risk; MMA organizations like Rizin in the tradition of PRIDE Fighting Championships do freak show fights — heavily exploitative, and does anyone want to be a CTE victim as sad as Gary Goodridge, Meldrick Taylor, or Terry Norris? I don’t think so.
Boxing has a long way to go to achieve complete inclusion in the LGBTQ+ community, and I don’t have an answer. I honestly find it a very unlikely possibility because of the culture though there are gay and trans fighters and fans for sure, and given some of the brief history outlined here, boxing’s machismo nature has hurt more than it helped for acceptance. Boxing is not in a mainstream place like it was in the 1970’s and the LGBTQ+ community would have to break through multiple barriers. Our community would have to bring forth fighters with charismatic personalities, and crowd pleasing styles for mainstream acceptance, and I would root for anyone should they breakthrough. I think it’s possible but, a long shot.
© 2023, Shizuka Sterns Morishita
