SAN BERNARDINO, California \u2013 Oscar Bonifacino is building a formidable fan base as the first South American boxer to publicly announce he\u2019s gay, and now he\u2019s complementing that distinction by proving his legitimacy in the ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can crack,\u201d trainer Bob Santos said.<\/p>\n
Uruguay\u2019s Bonifacino, 4-0-1 (3 KOs), was due to participate in the planned outdoor public boxing card that an English businessman was going to stage in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Just like the throngs of crowds Bonifacino, 22, is drawing in Uruguay thanks to the public support for him, a strong contingent of supporters were expected for him in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Instead, the financial collapse of the project had Bonifacino promoter Sampson Lewkowicz take the fighter to Saturday\u2019s ProBoxTV card at the National Orange Show here. He meets Spain\u2019s Raul Escudero 4-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe [San Francisco] opportunity was unique, but it came and went and while it\u2019s a little sad, it\u2019s all right because I know I still have the support of my community, regardless of where I fight,\u201d Bonifacino told BoxingScene Friday at the weigh-in.<\/p>\n
He has more than 40,000 Instagram followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful that they accompany me at every fight I take, and that support has pushed me through this career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bonifacino said he took up boxing to confront problems he was having at home, including \u201cabuse from my father.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone told me boxing could change my life, and it has,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The public support has been uplifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel I\u2019ve gained much more support since I\u2019ve come out as gay, which I didn\u2019t expect would happen,\u201d Bonifacino said. \u201cIt\u2019s charged me to keep pursuing this career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard this camp and definitely believe I\u2019ll come out victorious in God\u2019s name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN BERNARDINO, California \u2013 Oscar Bonifacino is building a formidable fan base as the first South American boxer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,711,710,49,48,242866,262770,284071,82],"class_list":["post-809385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-oscar-bonifacino","tag-proboxtv","tag-raul-escudero","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}