[News/Sports] [USA] Should A Former Man Be Able To Fight Women?

[Stephanie Stevens]

Time, USA


KEEPING SCORE

Should A Former Man Be Able To Fight Women?

By Sean Gregory | May 24, 2013


[Photo: Allanna Jones (left) and transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox
(right) at a press conference promoting their CFA fight taking place
on May 24.]

When Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Fallon Fox, the former Burton
Boyd, told Sports Illustrated
<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mma/news/20130307/fallon-fox-profile/>
in early March that she used to be a man, the condemnation came
quickly. “All hell broke loose, man,” says Jorge de la Noval, CEO of
the Championship Fighting Alliance, the promotion which staged a Fox
fight, which she won in 39 seconds, just five days prior. De la Noval
was flooded with phone calls and emails, insisting that Fox — who got
gender reassignment surgery back in 2006 — was some sort of sideshow
who should never be allowed to fight women. It’s one thing for a
male-t0-female transgender athlete to, say, play tennis against other
women, like Reneé Richards famously did back in the 1970s. Or even
basketball: that’s not a combat sport. But MMA is brutal. Letting
Fallon Fox back in the ring could be dangerous.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Matt Mitrione called
<http://www.mmamania.com/2013/4/8/4202308/ufc-matt-mitrione-calls-fallon-fox-sick-disgusting-freak-mm>
Fox a ”lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak. And I mean that.”
The UFC suspended Mitrione for 16 days, and fined him an undisclosed
amount. “She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it’s still the
same bone structure a man has,” UFC star Ronda Rousey told
<http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/the_main_event/ufc_women_champ_weighs_in_on_transgender_3x7mCaaXn27HVq1QtuO5lN#axzz2Q7FJSoPl>
the New York Post. “It’s an advantage. I don’t think it’s fair.”

Fox says she anticipated the negative feedback. “I’m not surprised at
all,” Fox, 37, tells TIME. “It’s part of our history as human beings.
People that we don’t understand, we always try to make fun of, of
sensationalize.”

Despite the backlash, Fox is still fighting against females. The
Florida State Boxing Commission has licensed Fox to fight as a woman,
and Fox will face Allanna Jones in a CFA fight in Coral Gables,
Florida on Friday night. Cable channel AXS TV has picked up Fox’s
card, which begins at 9:00 eastern, for a national telecast. “AXS TV
has a long history of broadcasting the highest quality and most
compelling non-UFC fights out there,” Mark Cuban, founder, chairman
and president of AXS TV, writes TIME in an email. “We have long-term
partnerships with several top end promoters. They do the match making,
we don’t pick the fighters. That said, we are really excited to have a
card with Fallon Fox on AXS TV. There is no question there is quite a
bit of curiosity about her.”

Science seems to be on Fox’s side. “Male to female transsexuals have
significantly less muscle strength and bone density, and higher fat
mass, than males,” says Dr. Eric Vilain, director of the Institute For
Society And Genetics at UCLA. Vilain examined Fox’s medical records
and wrote a letter supporting her bid to fight as a woman. He also
helped the Association of Boxing Commissions write its transgender
policy. In order to fight against women, male-to-female athletes who
had surgery after puberty must show that “surgical anatomical changes
have been completed, including external genitalia and gonadectomy” and
that “hormone therapy appropriate for the assigned sex (female) has
been administered by a board certified endocrinologist or internist,
pediatrician, or D.O. or any other specialist known to have
significant knowledge with transsexuals and transgender individuals
for a MINIMUM of TWO YEARS after gonadectroy. This is the current
understanding of the minimum amount of time necessary to obviate male
hormone gender related advantages in sports competition.”

Still, could Fox be stronger than the other women because she used to
be a man? “She could be,” says Vilain. “But sports is made up of
competitors who, by definition, have advantages for all kinds of
genetics reasons. And no one complains about it.” A woman runner may
be naturally faster, a woman basketball player taller, than her
cohort. To exclude Fox because of her surgery, Vilain argues, would be
discriminatory.

Plus, Fox’s low testosterone could offset any advantage. Since Fox has
neither testicles nor ovaries, which both produce testosterone, her
levels are likely lower than those of her female competitors. Fox says
her training partner, who is a woman, is stronger than her, and has
more endurance. “So I really have to work on my technique,” Fox says.
She’s not winning on brute strength alone, she says. Fox is winning
because she has serious fighting skills.

While growing up in Toledo, Ohio, Burton Boyd didn’t dream of a
fighting career. He dreamt of becoming like his sister. “Ever since I
was a child I had those feelings,” Fox says now. “It’s kind of hard to
describe. It’s like trying to describe the color blue to someone who
is color blind. What I can say is that it’s a subconscious feeling,
drive, that tells you to want your body to the be the opposite sex of
what you were born.”

Despite these feelings, Fox fathered a child at 19. She returned from
a stint in the Navy, and became a truck driver to raise money for the
2006 reassignment surgery, in Thailand. Around 2008, a trainer at
Fox’s gym introduced her to MMA. “I saw that there were other female
fighters out there,” Fox says. “It just hooked me in. Women were
fighting? That’s awesome. It was empowering and wonderful to watch.
And I wanted to be just like them.”

This is Fox’s third pro fight. Nobody has lasted more than two minutes
in the cage with her. Now, she’s not only fighting for herself, but
for transgender acceptance. “I’m impressed that the CFA is sticking
its neck out and letting her fight,” says Dr. Christopher Estes, a
professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of
Miami Health System. “And Fallon Fox has a lot of guts too. She’s
bringing transgender identity to the forefront. We’re now having a
discussion – where do transgender folks fit into society? People
struggling with these issues can say, ‘This is someone I identify
with, someone I can see.’ She validates people.”

To Fox, the reaction to her bouts is like the response to MMA at the
start. “People thought that MMA fighters were going to kill each other
in the cage,” says Fox. “That just hasn’t happened.” Over time, her
critics may not be as hysterical. “It’s just an educational thing that
needs to happen with people,” she says. For now, she’s trying her best
to drown out the negativity. ”Every day I wake up and see myself in
the mirror, it’s a high moment,” Fox says. “I know who I am. And it
feels really good to be who I am.”


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