Heading into 2023, Patricio Manuel was known as a trailblazing trans man with one professional boxing win in one fight and still looking for fight No. 2 after a four-year wait.
Halfway through 2023 Patricio Manuel has won two more fights and has a rankings slot.
With a punishing and competitive four-round unanimous decision victory over Alex Gutierrez June 8, Manuel ran his professional record up to 3-0. On March 22, he pounded Hien Huynh to win his second career fight on a four-round technical decision.
The wins places Manuel in the BoxRec.com national super featherweight rankings at 103rd. The website cross-references and statistically ranks thousands of boxers worldwide and is considered a staple for fans and journalists.
Manuel’s third fight, the opener on the Golden Fight Night card at Indio, Calif., was pulled together with an opponent who signed to the fight 48 hours prior. Despite the tight window to make weight and prepare, Gutierrez used movement and aggression to be competitive through the first two rounds.
The later rounds is where Manuel took control, working inside to blunt his opponent’s aggression.
According to the fight stats, Manuel landed 42% of power punches to 34% for Gutierrez and swept all four rounds by all judges. A late accidental bumping of heads causing a cut above Manuel’s left eye was the only glitch on a well-done win.
With Manuel showing up in an unofficial, but noted, rankings combine, there is speculation concerning his status in regards to the main professional boxing organizations.
Last December the head of the influential World Boxing Council stated the organization’s intention to start a division for transgender boxers in 2023, which included plans to conduct a worldwide search for potential competitors.
“It is the time to do this and we are doing this because of safety and inclusion,” WBC President Mauricio Suleiman stated to UK-based daily The Telegraph. “We are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box. We’re opening a universal registration in 2023, so that we can understand the boxers that are out there and we’ll start from there.”
Since that announcement the WBC has not commented on any progress toward those stated plans, nor has news of such a global fighter search reached their organization’s website.
Manuel has previously stated skepticism and opposition to the WBC proposal. Commenting on his instagram in January, he challenged some archaic statements made by Suleiman on transgender athletes.
“The WBC is inherently dehumanizing transgender people by implying that trans men aren’t men and trans women aren’t women,” he said. “This rhetoric flies in the face of both existing policies at the highest level of governing bodies in the world of sports and my own lived experience.”
For Manuel, the focus has already moved to a potential fourth fight. Based on what we’ve seen this far in 2023, he may not have to wait long and he’s grateful for what’s taken place so far.
