Being born a man didn’t help Fallon Fox in this fight.
Critics have blasted Fox, the first transgender professional MMA athlete, for fighting women though she lived as a man until seven years ago. But a TKO loss to Ashlee Evans-Smith on Saturday night proved the playing field is fairly even.
Evans-Smith knocked out Fox in the third round in in the Championship Fighting Alliance women’s featherweight (145 pounds) tournament final in Coral Gables, Fla.
Fox, who was 3-0 as a pro going in, was a heavy favorite, having generated significant buzz after she outed herself as transgender earlier this year to Sports Illustrated and OutSports. Before that, she had not informed promoters and athletic commissions that she was actually born a man. Florida’s state athletic commission eventually granted her a license to fight after an investigation.
Other fighters came out against Fox, born Boyd Burton, at the time. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, the most recognizable female MMA star in the world, told The Post that the 38-year-old Fox had an unfair advantage. UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione called Fox “a disgusting freak.”
However, Dr. Eric Vilain, director of the Institute for Society and Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Time that “male to female transsexuals have significantly less muscle strength and bone density, and higher fat mass, than males.” Vilain reviewed Fox’s medical records and supported her right to fight women.
“Sports is made up of competitors who, by definition, have advantages for all kinds of genetics reasons,” Vilain told the magazine.
In response to Mitrione, Fox said: “Matt Mitrione went well beyond disagreeing with the medical experts who say I should be able to compete as a woman, and personally attacked me as a fighter, as a woman, and as a human being. His comments do not reflect the spirit of our sport, where most competitors uphold values like respect and dignity.”
Fox, 38, finished her first three pro fights via knockout or submission, prompting those same pundits to carry on that she had an unfair advantage. But her win over Allanna Jones in May and this loss to Evans-Smith proved she wasn’t at a much higher level than either. CFA is regional organization in Florida – a far cry from the UFC, the world’s top MMA organization – and neither Jones nor Evans-Smith is considered a top prospect.
UFC president Dana White said Fox is “so far from being in the UFC,” not because she’s transgender, but because she likely isn’t good enough.
“It’s like talking about some lower level guy that fights in some smaller organization that’s beat people with losing records,” he said.