This weekend saw transgender fighter Alana McLaughlin defeat female opponent Celine Provost by rear naked choke. This isn’t the first time a transgender athlete has fought in MMA, with Fallon Fox originally turning heads years ago. In fact, McLaughlin even stated Fox was an inspiration.
Once again, this bout caused controversy with some claiming that McLaughlin should not have fought a woman being born a biological male. 38 year old McLaughlin was once serving in the US army in Afghanistan and gained PTSD from the experience. McLaughlin has identified as a female since 2003 and starting training MMA more recently.
Since coming out, McLaughlin has undergone gender reassignment surgery and was under the threshold of the required hormones to compete in this fight. After the fight, McLaughlin said on Twitter, “Good morning, friends, supporters and others! I’m getting a lot of variations of the same nasty messages calling me a cheater like I didn’t just get beat on for a round and a half. Y’all need to show Céline Provost some respect and take your concern trolling elsewhere. (1/2)”
With this said, the arguments about transgender athletes seems to be raging on and whatever side you’re on – this one doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
