Everlast Announces Patricio Manuel Will Be New Face Of Company
Everlast has announced their intent to start a groundbreaking all-inclusive campaign for combat athletes. Heading up this campaign is transgender pro boxer Patricio Manuel.
Everlast is known for their ingenuity and for thinking outside the box, as well as quality products. This trend continues with the launching of their new campaign to welcome athletes from all walks of life. According to a report from NBC, this campaign will include an amputee fighter, and a family of Mexican immigrants who are amateur boxers.
However, the face of this campaign is going to be transgender professional boxer Patricio Manuel. Manuel, 34, began boxing as a female in the beginning of his amateur career, winning multiple titles. Moreover, he was so good as to make to the 2012 Olympic trials, before being eliminated due to a shoulder injury.
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In the process of recovering from this injury, Manuel took time to do some self-reflecting. Subsequently, he had determined that the he had been living a lie, and spoke to his family about transitioning.
“I was juggling back and forth for a while,” Manuel says. But he didn’t want to be “untruthful” to himself, he says. “For me, that was competing in the female division because that wasn’t how I saw myself. And if I continued to push off my medical transition, I was doing more harm to myself.”
A few years later, Patricio Manuel would get the full surgery to be turned from a female to male. Throughout the process, he told NBC, he lost friends and a coach, as well as two jobs. Nevertheless, Manuel persevered, and in 2018 became the first transgender man to box professionally. Moreover, he won the bout, against Adan Ochoa, via unanimous decision.
In fact, he is looking to be an inspiration to others.
“Regardless of what your goals are, whether you are trans, whether you are an athlete or not, our dreams have big costs to it, and it all requires risk for us to find that reward.”
Patricio Manuel will join the ranks of boxers like Jack Dempsey, Sugar Ray Robinson and Canelo Álvarez, being the face of Everlast. As a result, he will be able to raise awareness for people in similar situations.
