Issue 102
June 2013
Amid the current controversy following the revelation
2-0 female fighter Fallon Fox used to be a male, we ask…
JULIE KEDZIE
Female UFC bantamweight from Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA
16-11
YES
It’s not for me to make regulations but I would fight her if she were my weight class. I believe she’s a female now. I think more research has to be done, I’m not a scientist, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a transgender specialist. I can’t tell you if it’s fair, if it’s unfair, what advantages (she has). It seems to me, and this is just with my limited knowledge of science, somebody who’s undergone oestrogen treatment for a decade or more doesn’t have the advantages that a male who remains male would have. For me, in my eyes, she’s a woman. Yes, I think they should be allowed to compete. That’s where I stand, I don’t know that I’m necessarily the person that can make that kind of ordinance or that kind of regulation. I do think a person of transgender should undergo enough tests to show that they’re not carrying a significant advantage.”
JOE ROGAN
UFC colour commentator, actor, television presenter and stand-up comedian
NO
There are mechanical advantages to being a man and that’s absolutely undeniable. The size of the hands, the width of the shoulders, the fact that you’ve had testosterone flowing freely through your body for 30 years. Yes, when you go on hormone replacement therapy and take oestrogen you lose bone mass, you most certainly lose muscle mass you change physiologically and become closer to a woman but you’re not a woman. People will say, ‘What about a woman who is naturally strong like Serena Williams?’ That is who she is. We’re not talking about allowing someone to go from the most vicious and powerful sex, the male sex, to compete in a violent sport against the softer sex. I think the Olympics have a standard where you have to take hormone replacement therapy for two years but I do not think that should apply to violent combat sports. ”
What you had to say on the matter ...
“I would have to say no, only because its not fair to the women competing that are actually women, born a woman.”
NO
@MISTA_GUICHO
“It is an easy answer for me: NO! It is the same as letting 1 fighter to use illegal drugs. As a man the fighter is stronger.”
@M_BRUNOPHOTOS
NO
“No this decision is basically saying with some surgery and hormones men and women’s bodies are the same so why fight separate?”
@VENOMOUSMMA
NO
“Difficult question about male-to-females fighting women but banning it would open up an even bigger issue re discrimination”
@MICKMARTIALARTS
YES
...
