Fallon Fox

[GeneChing]

'I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night,' said Tamikka Brents about Fallon Fox (pictured) Youtube screenshot
Dustin Siggins

Fri Sep 19, 2014 - 5:42 pm EST
Transgender ‘female’ MMA fighter gives female opponent concussion, broken eye socket

Transgender mixed martial arts (MMA) competitor Fallon Fox is facing new criticisms after breaking the eye socket of his last opponent.

On Saturday, Fox defeated Tamikka Brents by TKO at 2:17 of the first round of their match. In addition to the damaged orbital bone that required seven staples, Brents received a concussion. In a post-fight interview this week, she told Whoa TV that "I've never felt so overpowered ever in my life."

“I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night. I can’t answer whether it’s because [he] was born a man or not, because I’m not a doctor,” she stated. “I can only say, I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life, and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right. ”

His “grip was different,” she added. “I could usually move around in the clinch against...females but couldn’t move at all in Fox’s clinch.”

Fox's gender controversy is not new. In March 2013, after a 39-second knockout victory, it was revealed that Fox had not told the MMA community about his sex-change operation, which took place in 2006. That bout was the fifth straight first-round victory for the then-37-year old Fox, including his three amateur bouts, and his second victory as a professional fighter.

A video of the Brents fight taken by a ringside fan shows Fox throwing several powerful knees to the face and torso of Brents at the start of the match, who pulled guard to protect herself. Soon, Brents turned her back to avoid damage, where she took approximately 45 seconds of elbow and fist strikes – many blocked by her hands and arms – before the referee stopped the fight.

Critics of Fox abound, especially in light of the Brents fight. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) female champ Ronda Rousey told TMZ that while she would fight Fox, allowing transgender men to fight is "a case-by-case scenario."

"I feel like, if you already go through puberty as a man, that's something you can't really reverse," said Rousey, who said that it "would be fine" if a boy who was on hormone therapy to become a woman prior to puberty wanted to fight as a woman.

Because Fox had transgender surgery so late in life, however, Rousey said that he shouldn't fight women.

Likewise, last year, UFC announcer Joe Rogan made his opinion unambiguously and graphically clear, saying on his podcast that a transgendered man would "have all the bone structure that comes with” being a man. “You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints."

Speaking to LifeSiteNews, military veteran Jeff Nader, who has fought for UFC competitor Bellator, said that “Fallon Fox has had the benefits of being a man for most of his life. [He has] bone density, muscle mass, and other physical benefits that one gets from being a man. You can't have that, and then make a minor adjustment -- basically, a cosmetic adjustment -- and suddenly claim to be a woman."

"Nothing can take away from the fact that you are physically a man. Mentally and emotionally, who knows -- but physically, he's a man."

Nader said that Fox's loss to a woman earlier this year "doesn't matter." He told LifeSiteNews that "I am 220 pounds right now, and there are some women who would beat me in a grappling match because they have better technique. But that's in grappling, which doesn't involve striking. My wife has beaten several men in regulated grappling matches, but when you involve striking, that changes the equation. The physicality involved in MMA, including brute strength, changes the equation."

Combat sambo practitioner and former amateur boxer Brian Ledoux was likewise critical of Fox's decision to compete, saying that "I do not think a transgender male should be able to fight in female sports. I consider myself to be socially liberal on most subjects, but not when it comes to this scenario."

"In my opinion, when it comes to something like combat sports there is a clear physical advantage a transgender male could have over a female fighter. This is coming from my basic understanding of the physiological difference between the sexes,” Ledoux said. “These advantages create an uneven playing field in a sport that is already dealing with things like PED abuse, blood doping, etc."

"While I respect an individual’s rights to live their own life," Ledoux told LifeSiteNews, "I think in the case of MMA and combat sports a clear line should be drawn."

Former professional MMA fighter Dennis "Old School" Siggins told LifeSiteNews that "I totally disagree" with Fox fighting."

"Even if a transgender male loses some of his physical strength, that person will still likely have a tremendous strength advantage over...female opponents," said Siggins, who in addition to fighting also formerly ran and reported for the biggest MMA website in New England and New York. "A transgender male is simply bigger and more powerful than a female, and should not, I believe, be allowed to compete in female combat sports."

Fox has received support from some quarters, including from the first openly ****sexual UFC fighter, Liz Carmouche. After Fox's surgery became public, Carmouche told the ****sexual advocacy site GLAAD that "the MMA community – people who work in the gyms, the trainers and sparring partners and the fans – all openly embraced me as an athlete and I’m proud to see that also happening with a transgender athlete."

Carmouche said, “If a world-regarded respected body like the Nevada Athletic Commission licenses her as a female competitor, and says she has no performance advantage, then that should be good enough for everyone."

After Fox's past was revealed, Championship Fighting Alliance women’s tournament was canceled in support of Fox, who was under a great deal of pressure at the time because he had falsely claimed the California boxing commission had approved her fighting license. Fox says the misunderstanding -- Fox's application was being considered in California -- was accidental.

In an interview with "Inside MMA," Fallon said that "I don’t believe that a transgender fighter should have to disclose her personal medical history to other female fighters before they fight. It’s simply for the reason the medical community and the scientific community have come to the consensus that post-operative transsexual fighters who have been on hormone-replacement therapy and testosterone suppression, when they’re going from male to female, haven’t been found to have any physiological advantages over other women.”

Fox also said that some women who don't want to fight him may choose that path because they "might be a hate-filled person" or "have a bias." He said that "I don't want to fight those people, anyways, because they're scared.” He wants to fight someone who will fight "aggressively."

One fighter who did try to be aggressive was Brents. Her conclusion is that Fox shouldn't fight with women. “Any other job or career I say have a go at it, but when it comes to a combat sport I think it just isn’t fair. At least not until we have more scientific proof that it is or isn’t fair. More research is needed for sure."

Disclosure: Dennis Siggins is the father of LifeSiteNews D.C. Correspondent Dustin Siggins

I changed this thread title from 'Transgender MMA' to 'Fallon Fox' because this is really just about her.

[GeneChing]

Bravest trans perhaps. Personally I feel Tommie Smith and John Carlos were braver. But there are plenty of examples of bravery in sports. I'm imagine Fallon's critics will have a field day with this.

Fallon Fox is still the bravest athlete in history
Fallon Fox talks about the vicious online attacks she weathered, plus the support of the team in her corner.
By Cyd Zeigler @CydZeigler Jan 14, 2020, 7:00am PST


Fallon Fox is ready to step back into the ring.

In 2013, when Fallon Fox came out publicly as trans in professional mixed martial arts, she was the target of a torrent of hatred I have literally never seen targeting an LGBTQ athlete. While certainly some writers took thoughtful approaches to understanding this emerging dynamic of trans athletes in women’s sports, still many more, like Joe Rogan, were vicious for the sake of being vicious.

Yet Fox stood strong and continued to push for, and earn, her right to compete. Except for one fateful match, she also won every time she stepped into the professional ring.

When I wrote my book, Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place In Sports, the final chapter was titled, “Fallon Fox Is The Bravest Athlete In History.”

That remains true for me now, four years later.

So when Outsports released its 20 LGBTQ sports heroes of the decade, and we erroneously failed to include Fox on that original list, I felt it was important to re-introduce Fox to the world.

Today, as she works toward getting a degree, Fox is quietly re-emerging on the scene. She had slipped away from the public eye and social media for some time as she nursed injuries and healed her body. Now .she’s stepping back in the ring in hopes of some sparring and possible exhibition matches.

“My body is feeling a lot better lately,” she told me from her home in Chicago. “I’m getting past some of my injuries and I’m feeling a lot more in shape.”

Fox’s previous departure from MMA

When Fox disappeared from professional MMA, some people wondered why. Did a lack of opportunity with the UFC drive her away? Would no one fight her? While she admits some women likely felt pressure to not validate Fox’s presence in the sport with a fight, she said it was exclusively injuries that forced her to the sideline.

“I would have kept going but the injuries were the biggest reason,” she said, insisting that there were many women willing to fight her. “Some people suspected it was the UFC not letting me in, but that wasn’t the ultimate goal. Some people would ask if I wanted to fight in the UFC, and yeah, I would have taken that opportunity. But even without that I would have just kept fighting.”

To be sure, it wasn’t just UFC that seemed closed to having Fox enter the octagon against a cisgender woman. Fox told Outsports that she specifically approached Invicta, an all-female MMA promotion, about competing. She said she had personal conversations with executives there, yet follow-up outreach from Fox went unreturned.

Even with high-level MMA promotions ignoring her, MMA writers attacking her existence in the sport, and comments on MMA blogs that were routinely banned as hate speech, Fox persisted.

“What drove me to want to stay in the sport was my whole goal for becoming an MMA fighter, and that was to be like my heroes, some of the cisgender women in MMA I watched from 2006 on. That’s where I belonged. That’s who I was, and I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me from being that.”

One of the lasting moments from Fox’s career is a fight that has been twisted by anti-trans forces to paint her as a criminal assailant. During her fight against Tamikka Brents, Brents suffered a broken orbital and a concussion. Broken bones and concussions are not uncommon in MMA.

The people looking to ban trans women from women’s sports quickly twisted that into the misleading headline: Transgender MMA Fighter Breaks Skull of Her Female Opponent. The crux of their campaign is to build an aura of rarity around the fight and point to Fox being trans as the reason for the outcome.

“This happens all the time,” Fox said. “I’m not the first female MMA fighter who’s broken another fighter’s bones or caused a large amount of stitches or a concussion or any combination of those. And people will of course, because I’m trans, hold it up as this devastating thing that couldn’t possibly happen if I weren’t trans. But there are many different examples of similar things happening.”

A team in her corner

While people outside Fox’s circle have used the most malicious terms known in the English language in an attempt to drive her from the sport, Fox said she was supported by the people in MMA who knew her best.

“I know what it’s like to compete and train with teammates and they not know you’re trans. They get o know you as a woman and nothing else. And then later on when you come out, your team is behind you because they understand the situation and they’ve seen it first-hand and they care about you. In many situations this is happening with other trans women.”

Fox points out that she had been with her training team for a long time before she came out publicly, or came out to them, as trans. All the while they had, according to Fox, absolutely no idea that she was any different from any cisgender athlete in MMA.

Despite all of the screams of “unfair advantages” lobbied at her and other trans women in women’s sports, the women sparring with her saw no reason to believe she was different.

”My teammates had no idea I was trans. They recognized my endurance, my strength, my ability to cut weight in the same category as cisgender women. There was no idea in their minds that I didn’t belong.

“They weren’t thinking, ‘oh my God, she’s going to kill somebody.’”

In fact, Fox being trans was so far from the radar that one teammate was quite nearly speechless when she found out.

“I told her I was trans and I was about to come out, and the look on her face and what she said, she was totally surprised. She had no idea. And everything, my physical capabilities, my endurance, it was shocking to her.”

Fox ultimately came out publicly — in articles on Outsports and in Sports Illustrated — to get ahead of an article being planned by a sportswriter planning to out Fox, she said.

“Someone told that person that I was trans. I don’t know who. But they found out. And they contacted me and they were saying that because I was trans they didn’t want me to compete.”

Fox isn’t sure who tipped off the journalist whose threats changed her life forever, but she isn’t looking back. She’s been inducted in the LGBT Sports Hall Of Fame. She is an indelible part of LGBTQ sports history. And, maybe most importantly, she generated conversations an opened possibilities for trans athletes in women’s sports that will be felt for generations.

[GeneChing]

I missed that one.....Now i don't want to know what's next

How about Battle Royales like WWE? Sixteen fighters in the cage! I saw a live 16-man Battle Royale once, back in the day. It was freaking sweet.

[MasterKiller]

I'm hoping for MMA with weapons...just like in the movies

Dog Brothers.

[Lucas]

no you're absolutely right. obviously (get ready for it) he wasnt man enough to fight other men.

badabing!

[GeneChing]

I'm not sure that this "makes liberals rejoice", but maybe it does. Who supports MMA more, liberals or conservatives? John McCain was conservative and an outspoken critic of MMA. It is certainly a complicated issue politically.

Mixed Martial Arts fighter Fallon Fox shouldn't be allowed to beat up women
By Steven Crowder
Published March 20, 2013
FoxNews.com

Let me paint you a picture: your daughter is playing a contact sport. Say, football or hockey. She's gone from being your little girl to becoming a beautiful young woman. Opposite her on the field (or ice), is somebody who once was a man, until he decided that he didn’t feel like being one anymore.

This person can now legally, physically attack your daughter.

This makes liberals rejoice. How progressive.

Enter Fallon Fox, a male-to-female transgendered person, who has now decided to make a living by beating up women. With a record of 2-0, none of Fallon’s female victims have even made it past two minutes of the first round. If you were to watch these fights, it would look very much like you would expect…a man knocking a woman unconscious.

In the name of political correctness, leftists have come out championing the cause, as Fallon ragdolls female opponents into oblivion.

I can just hear the critics now... “She’s a she!” “You just hate transgender people!” or of my personal favorite “your values are just archaic!”

Archaic values? Possibly. Here’s one to try on for size…

Unless you were born and raised a woman, you don’t go around hitting chicks.

It’s only natural for human beings to get squeamish at the sight of a lifelong male pummeling dames mercilessly, but it’s not an argument. So let’s use a scientific one! Surprisingly, human biology is not the ****phobic, intrinsically anti-transgender medium that leftists would have you believe.

So let’s assume for a second that one can completely change their genetics (rather than the likely reality of having merely pushed certain, inconvenient gene expressions at bay) after having Bobbitt’d their wiener. It is still undeniable that for this person’s entire life, that he had the hormonal profile and capabilities of a man. This is of course to say nothing of the ligaments, bone density and overall musculature that has been built over a lifetime of… well, being a man. Let’s just talk hormones for a second.

Healthy young men naturally have an approximate testosterone level of 450-1100 ng./dl. Women, typically have that of 40-70 ng./dl. That’s a ratio of at least 10:1.

To give you some context; the dumb, roided out, oompa-loompa orange, professional bodybuilder at your neighborhood curl-rack very seldom enjoy that kind of a testosterone gap over their own male counterparts (with average pro bodybuilders coming in somewhere around 3500 ng.dl)

Even when people discontinue their stupid steroid cycles, they keep a significant portion of the gains they’ve made. (Also, their tribal tattoos. Gotta keep it real bro!)

Let me ask you this; if Barry Bonds came out and said “Okay okay, I did copious amounts of steroids for over 20 years, but I stopped before I hit my last few homers,” would you consider that fair? Would you consider it a distinctly illegal advantage or merely put one on the ledger for ol’ Bondy-boy! Chalk it up to him and his shenanigans, that’s our Barry!

Then there’s Lance Armstrong. Do people cut him a lot of slack for doping?

Finally, let me present to you exhibit C: Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. Once the definitive Strikeforce female featherweight champion, Cristiane found herself stripped of the title and suspended from fighting. The reason? You guessed it, anabolic steroids. See the reason for this is that often, hard as it is to believe, anabolic steroids assist drastically in improving one’s performance!

On a related note, Fallon Fox has being using steroids for decades.

They’re called testicles.

If you’ve had them, grown up with them and used them... you don't get to beat up women.

[GeneChing]

USA Boxing puts forth new trans policy and everybody is ****ed off
Advocates both for and against trans women in women’s sports are unhappy with USA Boxing’s policy.

By Cyd Zeigler@CydZeigler Updated Jan 2, 2024, 5:15pm PST 0 Comments / 0 New


Mikaela Mayer is one of the boxers speaking out against USA Boxing’s trans-inclusion policy. Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images

USA Boxing reportedly has a “new” policy regarding transgender athletes, and it’s already infuriating people across the spectrum.

Advocates for trans women’s participation in the female category are pointing to some of the harshest restrictions in sport. People who oppose trans women in the female category are upset there is any path to participation for them.

The World Boxing Council has, on the international stage, barred trans women from the female category, saying they will build a transgender category. Other countries’ governing bodies, like Boxing New Zealand, have followed suit.

The policy, as widely reported, has a number of key elements to it.

First, every athlete under 18 must compete in the category corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. This flies in the face of many of the more-strict trans-inclusion policies in sports, which allow for athletes to compete in their gender category as long as they haven’t experienced puberty.

Yet in boxing, a 15-year-old trans girl who has been on puberty blockers since they were 10 still has to compete in the male category.

Second, adult boxers must have had gender reassignment surgery. For years, sports governing bodies have moved away from this requirement, so the return of this requirement for USA Boxing is putting the push toward broader trans inclusion in reverse.

Third, adult boxers have to show they have have testosterone levels under 5 nmol/L for four years prior to competing. That four years is the longest wait period for any sport that allows trans women to compete in the female category.

Now USA Boxing is facing widespread criticism for the policy — at this point the strictest in sports (other than outright bans).

On one side, people are critical that the ban has any path to participation for trans women in boxing’s female category. Whether the policy mandated four years or 10 years of HRT,

“I will never agree to this,” said former world champion Ebanie Bridges. “It’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and power lifting but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU not just break a record.”

The “skulls” line has been used to target trans athletes in combat sports ever since Fallon Fox, competing in professional mixed martial arts six years after her transition, broke the eye orbital of an opponent. Critics say she broke her “skull” simply because it sounds worse.

“Hormone therapy is banned,” professional boxer Mikaela Mayer said on X. “By default, this should make trans athletes ineligible for competition. Doesn’t matter how you feel about the situation, fact is, it’s illegal and completely disrupts the even playing field that sport works so hard to create.”

Riley Gaines, the former college swimmer who came to prominence arguing publicly against trans women in female sports after competing against Lia Thomas, said a trans woman will end up killing a female boxer.

“Mark my words, it will take a woman getting killed before these misogynistic fools wake up.”

Dozens of boxers have been killed by cisgender boxers during matches, including a number of women. Major injuries are already a consistent aspect of the sport, before any trans woman steps into the female pro-boxing ring.

For trans advocates, this will be viewed as a setback. While there is a path to participation for trans women in the female category, the mandated surgery and four years of mandated HRT will be considered overly restrictive.

As mentioned, Fox did have surgery and six years of HRT before competing in professional MMA. So it is possible. Yet it’s a far cry from the one- or two-year mandates and no surgery that have been the most common guidelines over the last few years.

USA Boxing seems to be trying to thread the needle here, create a way for trans women to compete, but also raise the barrier to entry high enough to stave off some critics.

In the end, their policy will simply **** off everyone involved in this debate.

Boxing
Fallon Fox