Los Angeles — Transgender boxer Patricio Manuel made history on Saturday with a unanimous decision victory over Mexican super-featherweight Hugo Aguilar in Indio, California. Manuel, 33, became the first transgender male to fight professionally in the US. "I wouldn’t trade any of it. It was worth everything I went through to get to this point," Manuel said, according to the Los Angeles Times. He fought in the 2012 US Olympic trials as a female, but an injury spelled the end of a bid to make the team for the London Games after just one bout. Months later he began the transition to male. After surgery and hormone treatments he waded through the bureaucracy of getting licensed. California boxing authorities were wary of granting a licence, but when the International Olympic Committee ruled before the 2016 Rio Games that female to male transgender athletes could compete "without restriction" the way was cleared for him. AFP
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