A sportswriter for a prolific LGBTQ media outlet said recently that Fallon Fox — a transgender female MMA competitor who was biologically born a male — is the “bravest athlete in history.”
Fox, 44, once broke a female competitor’s skull during a 2014 fight.
What are the details?
In late January, Outsports contributor Cyd Zeigler praised Fox’s performance in the octagon and said that Fox is easily the bravest athlete in all of history.
Zeigler wrote, “She’s been inducted in the LGBT Sports Hall of Fame. She is an indelible part of LGBT sports history. And, maybe most importantly, she generated conversations an [sic] opened possibilities for trans athletes in women’s sports that will be felt for generations.”
Zeigler also praised Fox for enduring a “torrent of hatred I have literally never seen targeting an LGBTQ athlete.”
As highlighted by Disrn, Fox has received criticism for delivering “life-altering blows” to female opponents in the ring.
“During a fight against Tamikka Brents in 2014, Fox gave Brents a concussion and broke seven orbital bones,” Disrn reported. The fight lasted a whole three minutes.
At the time, Brents said, “I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night.”
Brents said that she was not aware at the time that Fox had transitioned from male to female.
“I can’t answer whether it’s because she was born a man or not because I’m not a doctor,” Brents said. “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. … I still disagree with Fox fighting. 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.”
The Post Millennial recently reported that athlete Erika Newsome fought what ended up being her final pro fight against a ruthless Fox.
“Fox, a male to female transgender athlete, destroyed Erika Newsome in a Coral Gables, FL, MMA fight during which she ‘secured a grip on Newsome’s head … With her hands gripping the back of Newsome’s skull, she delivered a massive knee, bringing her leg up while pulling her opponent’s head down.”
“The blow landed on Newsome’s chin and dropped her, unconscious, face-first on the mat,” the outlet reported.
That fight, which took place in 2012, was Newsome’s last professional fight.
Zeigler wrote, “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,” Zeigler continues. “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.”
Fox told Zeigler that such a thing “happens all the time.”
“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,” Fox said. “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.”
*story by The Blaze
