To safeguard participants’ “safety,” the World Boxing Council (WBC) is establishing distinct divisions for transgender fighters, according to officials’ announcement on Thursday.
In an interview with The Telegraph that was published on Thursday, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman stated that the new divisions for the following year are intended to ensure that “the hazards of a man fighting a woman would never arise.”
He declared emphatically, “We will never permit — ever — a transgender born a man to combat a woman, who was born a woman.
Instead, the organization of trans fighters will be based on a “at birth” rule, which states that a trans female fighter who was born a man can only box against another trans female fighter who was also born a man, and vice versa.
Sulaiman, the longtime leader of one of the sport’s four major organizations, said, “It is the time to do this, and we are doing this because safety and inclusivity.”
“Regardless of gender transition, a man facing a woman in boxing must never be permitted.
“There should be no gray area surrounding this,” he told the UK newspaper. “We want to go into it with transparency and the right decisions.”
“Transgender people who transition from a woman to a man or a man to a woman will never be allowed to fight against a different gender at birth.”
Sulaiman stated that the WBC will “issue a global call for those who are interested in 2023,” adding that it was unclear at the time how many prospective trans fighters would be interested.
We are developing a set of guidelines and organizational frameworks to enable transgender boxers to compete, as they fully deserve to do if they so want.
The objective is to “put up the protocols, start consultation, and maybe organize a league and a tournament” after that.
Following controversy surrounding athletes in other sports, most notably record-breaking swimmer Lia Thomas, the new restrictions were introduced. It has also concentrated on other combat sports, such as mixed martial arts, where Alana McLaughlin, the second openly transgender woman to compete in the cage sport in the US, choked out her female opponent in September.
The WBC’s new rules would bar trans athletes who have already achieved success in the ring from ever competing in the group’s tournaments, including those who were born as women but are now competing against men.
Patricio Manuel, who was a five-time women’s US amateur champion before making his professional boxing debut as a man in 2018, is the most well-known of these. He won his one and only fight as a man.
Manuel would only be permitted to box another trans man who was born a woman under the WBC’s proposed rules.
Natasha Jonas, a British boxer who holds the light middleweight title, told The Telegraph that the proposed transfer “makes sense.”
“Either way, it’s risky. There are obviously physiological disadvantages for the female if a man transitioning to a woman battles a born woman, she added. “If you are a woman, you shouldn’t be battling a man.
“As a female boxer, I have no issue with transgender people competing, but if you’ve transitioned to a woman, you can’t fight as a woman,” I said. You are unable to compete with me. That’s all,” Jonas remarked.
“I support everyone playing sports, but fairly.”
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