Transgender mixed martial artist Fallon Fox has been making heavy headlines as of late. Fox (whose birth name is Boyd Burton) has expressed a strong desire to compete within the UFC ranks, and it’s rubbed a series of female (and male) fighters the wrong way. In fact, just about everyone in the MMA community with a voice has weighed in on the topic.
Joe Rogan, famed voice of the announcement team for the UFC, recently launched into a vicious tirade on his own Rogan Experience Podcast. He’s not exactly keen on the idea of Fox competing against other women.
Check out what Rogan had to say.
“She calls herself a woman but… I tend to disagree. And, uh, she, um… she used to be a man but now she has had, she’s a transgender which is (the) official term that means you’ve gone through it, right? And she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no f*cking way. I say if you had a d*ck at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a d*ck. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You’re a f*cking man. That’s a man, OK? You can’t have… that’s… I don’t care if you don’t have a d*ck any more.”
Those are some harsh words, but many will point to some validity in Rogan’s assessment.
Potential foe, Allanna Jones, has expressed her displeasure with meeting Fox inside a cage, noting that whether or not Fox now walks as a “woman”, she “was still born and developed a man.” There can obviously be no denying that (here’s an attached pic if you somehow feel this is a massive conspiracy theory), and it isn’t difficult to understand the general ire the situation as a whole has spawned.
Today another female fighter speaks out and this time we’re hearing from a woman already signed by the UFC, and already positioned as a highly ranked female combatant. In fact, we’re talking about a woman who has already held a major title: Miesha Tate, former Strikeforce belt holder.
You can bet the remarkably durable Tate doesn’t fear Fox. Tate’s been in a few serious wars (including her savage loss to Ronda Rousey at Strikeforce) in her career and has showcased a more diverse attack than your average female combatant. In short, she’s completely capable of beating the brakes off most women competing today. She may very well be able to dispose of a few men as well.
None of that changes her viewpoint.
Speaking with ESPN, Tate made her concerns known, stating, “I just have a lot of questions and I don’t feel there’s been enough research to safely say it’s OK for Fallon Fox to fight other females. My concern is that she went through puberty as a man. Does that change bone density? Does it change her body frame?”
Tate’s question marks clearly echo Rogan’s, although she’s taken a bit more of a professional approach when addressing the matter.
Whether Fox, who has had just two professional fights (both of which ended with Fox seeing her hand raised after securing stoppage victories), ever gets a chance to prove her skills as a mixed martial artist inside the coveted Octagon remains to be seen.
At this stage of the game, Fox still has a large mountain to climb before being considered as a deserving addition to a promotion as powerful as the UFC.
We may all be jumping the gun here, but the general consensus is obvious: Fox isn’t a welcomed commodity in the WMMA world.
The only other major question still floating about is if Fox’s story will birth enough public controversy to rake in some significant pay-per-view numbers? That’s a tough one to answer, but if Dana White sees potential dollar signs, the world could be in for a major, major surprise in the future!
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