Transgender boxer
Patricio “Cacahuate” Manuel is training hard and is determined to secure his next fight, an event he has been waiting to see for the last three and a half years.

“I waited six years before,” he told ESPN. “I’ll wait whatever it takes.”

In Dec. 2018, the 35-year-old fought and defeated super-featherweight Hugo Aguilar in a unanimous victory, becoming the first transgender boxer to fight and win professionally in the United States, as Blavity previously reported.

"I think if people knew what it took to get to this moment," he said into the microphone after the audience erupted in boos. "It's been almost two years since I've been in the ring."

Prior to his last professional match, the California native struggled to be accepted into the boxing community since beginning his female-to-male transition in 2013.

“The toughest part of transitioning has been having pre-set matches inexplicably fall out,” Manuel said in an interview with the LA Times. “Vic [Valenzuela] and I have gone to shows and watched opponents leave without explanation moments after a fight was made official.”

Under USA Boxing regulations, participants can decline to fight another opponent for reasons such as personal bias.

“Honestly, he’s just one of the guys,” Vic Valenzuela, fellow boxer and friend of Manuel’s, said, correcting others when they referred to Pat as “she” while he underwent his transition.

Struggles with gender dysphoria for Manuel began as he entered an all-girls middle school and didn’t feel like the others. That’s when he decided to enroll in the martial arts style Jeet Kune Do, created by Bruce Lee.

"I wanted to feel capable in my body," he said.

That same martial arts practice eventually led him to box where he says he “fell in love” and turned his frustrations into fighting athletically.

Aside from trying to figure out where he belonged, the California native also wrestled with his identity in another capacity coming from a mixed-race family. Manuel was born to an Irish American mother and a Black father, Christopher Manuel, who was frequently away from home due to his service in the military.

"I yearned for my father and he wasn't there, and I wanted that Black masculinity more than anything,” he recounted. “It wasn't just about him being my dad. I needed a Black male role model in my life to emulate, and I didn't have that."

As an adult, Manuel has found that he’s experienced life differently, traversing the world as his authentic self.

"I can't disconnect my Blackness from my gender identity," he said. "Who I am, how I have moved through this world when I was identified as a quote-unquote 'light-skinned, mixed-race Black girl,' is a very different experience than a light-skinned, mixed-race Black man."

From 2006 to 2012, Manuel won five amateur national boxing championships. The boxer’s last fight as a woman was in 2012 against Tiara Brown during the 2012 U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials, a match that forced Manuel to withdraw due to a shoulder injury.

When he was entering the boxing front as a man, Manuel was ostracized by coaches like Roberto Luna, opponents, pastors and more. He was even turned down from job opportunities when he showed up after being interviewed via phone.

One thing that stayed consistent, however, was the support from his family. Manuel’s grandmother paid for his $6,000 surgery to remove his breasts in 2014. The International Olympics Committee stated that female-to-male transgender athletes had to undergo gender affirmation surgery, show legal recognition of their gender and do at least two years of hormone replacement therapy before being eligible to compete, according to the LA Times.

“I said, ‘OK, if that’s going to make you happy’,” Manuel’s mother, Loretta Butler, recalled. “I told him I would support him 100% in whatever he chose to do. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter to me. I just want him to be happy. It was a natural transition.”

While Manuel was in the midst of his fighting lull and battled depression after failing to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, he still managed to feel good in the skin he’s in.

“I still have split seconds of not recognizing myself. But for the most part, I feel more comfortable than I ever have in my body,” Manuel said in 2017. “It never crossed my mind to give up. It has absolutely been worth this journey to live publicly as my true self.”

Now, Manuel is determined to stay ready, training daily following the COVID-19 pandemic which forced gyms to shut down.

As he reflects on where he’s been and where he’s headed, Manuel is appreciative of his journey and is experiencing a newfound love for himself.

"Just thinking about myself as a child, I already knew who I was, but society told me I didn't know. No, I was right all along," he said. "I realized I have done something so many people struggle to do, and it has nothing to do with boxing or breaking barriers. I came back to myself.”

“I found my way back and I found myself,” he added. “And not only do I like myself, but I really love myself. And so many people that can have all of the quote-unquote success in the world, and they still don't have that. I feel like I've made it."

Patricio-Manuel

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