Patricio Manuel, who last December became the world’s first transgender boxer to compete in a professional fight, has been named the new face of iconic boxing brand Everlast.

Launched in 1910, Everlast is the world’s leading manufacturer and licensor of boxing, MMA, and fitness equipment. Previous faces of the brand have included such legends as Jack Dempsey, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Canelo Álvarez. Manuel is part of a new group of trailblazers tapped by the brand to front its global ‘Be First’ campaign which also includes Jinji Martinez, the only above-knee amputee fighter to ever beat a fully bodied person, and the Balderas family.

Growing up in a small town south of Los Angeles, Manuel started boxing at 16, rising to prominence as a female fighter, before transitioning in 2013. “A lot of people in boxing who I talked to, they would come to me and say: ‘You could have been one of the greatest female world champions, though you would throw it all away to be yourself’,” Manuel says in his Everlast campaign. “I tell them that’s how bad I felt living that lie.” 

“There are so many people that have said that it’s impossible for someone like me, a trans man, to be able to compete against a non-trans man and I proved them all wrong that night,” he continues. “I walked out of that fight with my first victory and it was a victory greater than just having my successful pro debut. I think it challenged a lot of people’s assumptions about what people like me are able to do.”

Watch the full campaign below.