A major story in MMA this week has been that of trans MMA athlete Alana McGlaughlin, who won via second-round submission against Celine Provost on Friday night.
UFC fighter Sean Strickland took to social media to express his disgust with the fight, blasting McGlaughlin for competing against women. On Instagram, Strickland posted images of the fight, including a pre-transition McGlaughlin.
UFC Fighters Blast Trans Fighter Alana McGlaughlin: “get out of women’s MMA, coward”
“Change your name, call yourself a woman… but you’re still a fu****g man, get out of women’s MMA, coward. This is why the athletic commission is useless” Image: https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/09/b8c7c-16314791511560-800.jpg
Sean Strickland is not alone in criticizing the bout. The issue of trans athletes competing against cisgender athletes remains controversial. Fellow UFC fighter Jake Shields weighed in on Twitter, expressing total disbelief.
Shields stated that “This is just insane that any fight show or commission would allow a trans person to fight a women”.
As for Alana McGlaughlin, she also fired up her social media in order to fire back at her critics. McGlaughlin took to Instagram to defend herself and pointed out that those who were criticizing her for fighting women were implicitly diminishing the athletic abilities of her French opponent, Celine Provost.
“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 @cylinelagrande some respect and take your concern trolling elsewhere. She almost finished me more than once, and on scorecards she definitely won that first round. This is the only post I’ll make about this. Transphobes are just making my block hand stronger.🤷♀️”
Before Alana McGlaughlin, there was another trans fighter by the name of Fallon Fox, whose presence in the sport was similarly controversial. Women’s MMA’s biggest star at the time, Ronda Rousey, believed that Fox had an “unfair disadvantage” when fighting women, thanks largely to the onset of male puberty.
While openly trans athletes remain too small in number for an entire transgender division, the issue of whether they can compete against cisgender fighters will persist.
What are your thoughts on Alana McGlaughlin’s MMA career? Let us know in the comments.
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