(Reuters) – Puerto Rico’s Orlando Cruz, the first openly gay fighter in professional boxing, failed in his bid to gain the WBO featherweight title when he was knocked out by Mexico’s Orlando Salido in the seventh round of their fight on Saturday.
Salido dominated throughout and put Cruz away with a right hand to the chin and left to the body during the seventh after a heavy exchange of power blows during their bout in Las Vegas.
Cruz went down to the canvas face first with referee Kenny Bayliss then stopping the fight to push Salido’s record to 40-12-2, with 28 KOs while Cruz fell to 20-3-1.
