Brit women boxers could face nightmare if they’re forced to fight transgenders with row tearing sport apart
BRITAIN'S women boxers could face their worst nightmare if they are forced to fight transgender opponents.
So far there have been no applications from the transgender community to be allowed to box, professionally or in the amateur ranks.
But there's no doubt it’s the elephant in the ring and governing bodies around the world are aware it could happen.
Robert Smith, secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control and Keith Walters, secretary of the London ABA, have already set up meetings to discuss what their policy will be.
Smith said: “At the moment the problem is hypothetical but we can see it coming.
“When it does we intend to be fully prepared. Medical and, perhaps more importantly, legal considerations will have to be taken into consideration.”
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Smith and Walters understandably are refusing to forecast the outcome of their organisations’ deliberations.
But Simon Block, former secretary of the BBBofC, and a highly-respected official with the Commonwealth Boxing Council and WBC, boldly told me: “If one of the bodies I’m associated with allowed a transgender to box competitively I would immediately resign.”
Sport is being torn apart with transgender athletes accused of having unfair physical advantages over female rivals.
There have already been major rows in track and field athletics, weightlifting, swimming and cycling.
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Sharron Davies, swimming silver medallist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, has bravely long been an outspoken campaigner against transgender athletes being allowed to compete in women’s events.
Davies, supported by the vast majority of sportswomen, maintains transgenders — despite reducing their testosterone levels — retain many of the physical advantages associated with males.
It is highly unlikely a track athlete, swimmer or cyclist would be badly hurt losing to a transgender rival.
Savannah Marshall, defending her WBO world middleweight title, knocked out Belgium’s Femke Hermans with a ferocious left hook last Saturday.
Femke was out cold and it took the paramedics several minutes to bring her around.
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It doesn’t bear thinking about what serious damage Femke could have suffered if a transgender with the strength and power of a man had hit her.
Even militant trans activists, who have been known to hand out death threats to those who oppose them, have the good sense to understand it would be extremely dangerous to permit transgenders to fight competitively.