Naturally, the folks at TMZ.com decided that in these tumultuous times, the world needs Hulk Hogan to be the voice of reason, because even they are affected by slow news days every once in a while. Hogan reminds everyone that in his business, anyone who trains, eats their vitamins and says their prayers is capable of stepping into the ring with him. Yes, Hulk Hogan is now the latest person to declare willingness to compete against Fallon Fox, and he did so with all the enthusiasm you’d expect from a famous aging wrestler being asked questions about a transgender MMA fighter instead of his own career.
Naturally, the folks at TMZ.com decided that in these tumultuous times, the world needs Hulk Hogan to be the voice of reason, because even they are affected by slow news days every once in a while. Hogan reminds everyone that in his business, anyone who trains, eats their vitamins and says their prayers is capable of stepping into the ring with him. Yes, Hulk Hogan is now the latest person to declare willingness to compete against Fallon Fox, and he did so with all the enthusiasm you’d expect from a famous aging wrestler being asked questions about a transgender MMA fighter instead of his own career.
“I’ll whip her. I mean I’ll whip him. I’ll whip her…I’m confused. I’ll pin her, submission,” he tells the reporter. Just in case you can’t tell that this is strictly for publicity, “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart chimes in at the end with “If anybody can make money, let’s use ‘em.” It’s somewhere around this point that the entire Fallon Fox controversy officially jumps the shark.
Unfortunately, The Iron Sheik was not available for comment.
If the UFC passes on an opportunity to sign transgender fighter Fallon Fox, Hulk Hogan is more than happy to welcome her into the squared-circle.”I’ll whip her, I mean I’ll whip him, I’ll whip her, I’m confused. I’ll pin her, submission,” Hogan recentl…
If the UFC passes on an opportunity to sign transgender fighter Fallon Fox, Hulk Hogan is more than happy to welcome her into the squared-circle.
MMA journalist Loretta Hunt broke the story where Fox revealed to Sports Illustrated she was originally born a man. In 2006, Fox traveled to Bangkok, Thailand and underwent sex reassignment surgery, which also included supplemental hormonal therapy.
As a woman, Fox has gone on to compete professionally against other women in MMA, a decision that unearthed a fierce debate regarding the ethical nature of the sport.
After undergoing the necessary augmentations and maintaining a hormonal balance, some believe Fox passes the requirements as a legitimate female competitor in the sport.
Others, like UFC commentator Joe Rogan, still see Fox as having the same bone density and physical makeup of a man, which puts opponents at an incredible disadvantage.
UFC President Dana White didn’t shut the door on Fox’s entry into the UFC. During an appearance on the Abe Kanan Show on SiriusXM (via MMAJunkie.com), he chalked it up to being a problem the athletic commission would have to sort through.
White doesn’t believe Fox has done enough in her career to warrant a contract at this time. Her professional record stands at 2-0, and both of her opponents had losing records.
It’s a bridge the UFC will cross when the timing feels more appropriate.
As for Hogan, he is likely looking for another cash cow to milk and help facilitate the growth of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). This really isn’t any different than when Vince McMahon reportedly issued a challenge to fight White not too long ago.
In any case, it’s tough not to feel sympathetic towards Fox.
Every human being is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions, but some of the personal remarks geared towards Fox have been nothing short of oppressing.
This article reflects the opinion of the author.
Steroid use can be a dangerous game of “Can you top this?” Pro wrestling fans will remember the 1980s, when the success of ludicrously ripped acts like the Road Warriors and Hulk Hogan convinced promoter…
This article reflects the opinion of the author.
Steroid use can be a dangerous game of “Can you top this?” Pro wrestling fans will remember the 1980s, when the success of ludicrously ripped acts like the Road Warriors and Hulk Hogan convinced promoters that swollen muscles were the key to monetary success. What followed were a ridiculous menagerie of overly muscled human action figures, wrestlers like Hercules Hernandez, who rewrote the book on human anatomy.
The result was tragic. Swollen hearts were an unfortunate byproduct of those swollen muscles. Wrestlers from that generation started dropping like flies. Most of our heroes, the wrestlers from that era we grew up on, like Rick Rude, Hawk and Curt Hennig, are dead and gone. No one who was a wrestling fan can possibly minimize the real danger in the drug’s misuse.
But testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is not the same thing as steroid abuse. It’s just not. If you don’t trust the doctors who prescribe it to millions of men, trust your eyeballs. The UFC’s top stars don’t look like bodybuilders. They have lean and functional physiques.
The pythons Hulk Hogan was so proud of? That’s a show muscle—the bicep is a muscle for people who want to look strong, not people who want to be strong. After all, its sole purpose is to lift up the lower part of your arm. That’s it. Functional strength is built in your back, thighs and butt. Not in your arms.
The purpose of testosterone therapy isn’t to build giant and jacked super warriors, complete with comic-book-style physiques and powerhouse punching prowess. TRT is designed to bring people, typically men in their 30s and above who have seen the amount of testosterone their bodies produce dip, back up to normal levels of testosterone.
It doesn’t give athletes an unfair advantage over their opponents. If properly managed by the state athletic commission, a fighter will never even take particularly large doses. In Nevada, for example, a fighter looking to get approval for TRT has to submit at least five different tests to the commission. That doesn’t leave much room for abuse (for more on the ins and outs of drug testing, please see Mike Chiappetta’s exhaustive article at MMA Fighting).
That’s what makes critiques of the procedure so baffling. Take Fight Opinion’s Zach Arnold, an outspoken opponent of TRT, even if the fighter is under a doctor’s care and carefully scrutinized by the state:
The media frenzy towards the UFC if a fighter, on a UFC-regulated show, cripples or kills another fighter while using testosterone will be voluminous. Let’s not go down this path in combat sports. Clean up the mess now before someone pays a permanent price. Once a major incident happens, the stain will be hard to erase and the damage will be done.
This is where Zach and I need to part ways. The men and women who compete in the cage do so with the knowledge that things could go badly, very badly, at any moment. That’s what makes them so admirable—they understand the risks, accept them and enter that cage despite them.
So far, the sport has been lucky enough never to have a death inside the UFC’s Octagon. Even serious injuries have been few and far between. If it happens, and boxing’s tragic history tells us it inevitably will, it won’t be because an older fighter has increased his energy level with TRT. It will be because the sport is inherently and unavoidably dangerous.
(Video courtesy YouTube/HDNet)
Chael Sonnen sat down with Mike Straka for the HDNet interviewer’s "Fighting Words" show the day after his UFC 117 war with Anderson Silva and spoke a bout a variety of topics including his loss to the UFC …
(Video courtesy YouTube/HDNet)
Chael Sonnen sat down with Mike Straka for the HDNet interviewer’s "Fighting Words" show the day after his UFC 117 war with Anderson Silva and spoke a bout a variety of topics including his loss to the UFC middleweight champion, the fact that he didn’t get a cut of the PPV earnings and the fact that he visits a sports psychologist to help deal with the weight a loss like he had against "The Spider"two weeks ago heaps on him emotionally.
Overall, it was another polarizing interview, minus all of the pre-fight posturing that has garnered him so much attention (which he maintains was not an act), but it what the Oregon wrestler said about the controversial tap and subsequent stoppage at the end of the fight was arguably the most interesting tidbit from the Q&A session.
