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Rod Llaneza
(1972 - living) U.S.A.

Rod Llaneza

Kick boxing athlete

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Llaneza's self-confidence showed at an early age when, at 10, he would watch boxers train across the street from the pizzeria where his family would dine on Friday evenings in Washington, D.C. After school, he would sneak away on his bike, sit outside and watch some more. After he laughed at a teen practicing in the ring, he was invited in and challenged to do better.

As his interest grew in full contact kickboxing - the sport that combines martial-arts-style kicks and Western-boxing-style punches that must land above the belt - Llaneza also battled with his sexual orientation, knowing he was gay but arguing internally that he "wasn't supposed to be." Llaneza turned that struggle into the energy that fed his training and desire to excel in his new sport.

A desire to keep to himself meant Llaneza pursued the sport alone, often without the team and network of support that other fighters use to their advantage. It also kept him from developing a large fan base. It partly served his desire to perform on his own terms, but it also helped forge his dual personality of a champion amateur kickboxer and gay man.

Llaneza moved to Atlanta in 1996 to expand the family's appliance business. Alone, he turned to a grueling schedule of working during the day and training late into the night at his home in the suburbs about 35 miles northeast of the city.

But he was also struggling with being gay, facing a tug-of-war over his sexual orientation that had him doubting his abilities in the ring while also wanting to explore it, win a championship and come out to the kickboxing community. Llaneza thought the platform that came with a title would allow him to come out as gay and make an impact in the sport. He got a taste of living openly with the gay friends he slowly made and wanted more yet the pressures of competing and the anxiety it fed within Llaneza kept him quiet.

Llaneza says his chance at a title came as a fluke. He was slowly meeting people in the kickboxing industry, seeking out top fighters to train with and jockeying for a better position. But when opportunity came calling in 2001, he hadn't been training much. A few days before a scheduled title fight in South Carolina, he received a call from a panicked promoter who needed a fill-in. When Llaneza arrived at the arena, he was rushed inside with no chance to warm up and had to ask a friend to wrap his hands. With expectations set pretty low, he turned it on and scored an upset to take the title.

Now with a title, Llaneza thought he could reach even higher. Tempted to come out, he hesitated over concerns of being shunned by the sport and missing a shot at a world championship. For the years he held his kickboxing crown, Llaneza continued to keep his athletic and personal lives mostly separate.

But after defending the kickboxing crown for four years, Llaneza says it was time to fully live the part of his life kept sheltered for so long, so he retired. But he often considers stepping back into the sport to resume the quest for a bigger title and to make good on the desire to tell the fight community that their champion is gay. For now, the "love-hate relationship" Llaneza says he has with the sport keeps that chapter of his life closed. Carrying the title for four years, though, brought him the confidence to say he's gay - at least outside the ring.

Llaneza's tone changes when talk is of more personal matters, from his move into a Peachtree Street loft in Midtown to kick-start his gay life after retiring from kickboxing, his boyfriend of more than a year and his 4-year-old Blue Razor's Edge Pit Bull named Cassius Killer. His cadence slows, he sits instead of paces and he talks more softly.

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Source: excerpts from an article by Matt Hennie, for Outsports.com

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