LAS VEGAS — Gay boxer Orlando Cruz lost his bid for a piece of the featherweight title Saturday night, getting stopped in the seventh round by veteran Orlando Salido.
Cruz, the first openly gay active fighter, was outclassed much of the fight by Salido, who landed the heavier punches throughout before knocking Cruz down with a right hand to the head in the seventh. Cruz was on his knees and couldn’t get up as he was counted out at 1:05 of the round.
“I went into the corner and he hit me with a good shot,” Cruz said. “I thought the fight was close up until then.”
Salido, who lost the 126-pound title in his last fight, won it back with an impressive performance against Cruz, a former Olympian from Puerto Rico who last year came out as gay. He took the fight to Cruz and was ahead 59-55 on two scorecards and 58-56 on a third going into the seventh round.
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“This is the biggest moment of my life,” Salido said. “I won a world title for th e fourth time.”
Cruz was greeted by a mixture of boos and whistles coming into the ring, with the pro-Mexican crowd that came to cheer on Juan Manuel Marquez against Timothy Bradley in the main event clearly in the corner of Salido, who is from Mexico. He was accompanied by a man waving a flag in rainbow colors, and fought in trunks with rainbow colors modeled after the Puerto Rican flag.
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“This is my moment, my time,” Cruz said before the fight, clearly relishing his moment in the limelight.
It turned out it wasn’t his fight, though, with Salido showing off his ring skills and handling most of what Cruz threw at him. Cruz landed few big punches, though he used his southpaw style to box effectively at times from the outside.
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