Trans male boxer Patricio Manuel wins fight against cisgender rival
Patricio Manuel has won his third fight against cisgender male rivals. (Patricio Manuel/Instagram)
Trans man Patricio Manuel has won his third boxing match against cisgender male opponents.
Manuel was awarded a technical win, by unanimous decision from the judges, after four rounds in the ring with Alex Gutierrez.
It is his second win of the year and he won the match despite sustaining a cut on his face during the fight.
The outlet reported that Manuel transitioned in 2012 and debuted as a pro male competitor in December 2018, winning his match against Hugo Aguilar.
That fight saw him become the first openly transgender man to box professionally in the US, reports Boxing Scene.
He then did not fight again until March 2023. All three fights were won by technical decision.
As reported by Gay Express, an LGBTQ+ magazine in New Zealand, Manuel is currently ranked 99th in the US and 782nd in the world, and could now be ranked in one of the major world boxing-sanctioning bodies.
However, it is not known if he would be ranked with cisgender men because the sport’s international governing body, the World Boxing Council (WBC), proposed in December 2022 to introduce a transgender category this year. WBC had originally proposed to ban trans athletes completely.
The proposal would mean trans men only fight other trans men, and trans women only fight other trans women.
Manuel has previously spoken about this, writing on social media in January 2023 that the proposed trans-only league was “dehumanising”.
He said the decision “misguided”, that “disappointment is an understatement” and they hoped WBC would reconsider.
“The WBC is inherently dehumanizing transgender people by implying that trans men aren’t men and trans women aren’t women,” he wrote.
He added that the proposal contradicted policies “crafted over years at the highest levels of sports governing agencies, such as the International Olympic Committee and USA Boxing” that allow trans men to fight cis men, and the same for trans and cis women.
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