CV NEWS FEED // USA Boxing decided last week to allow some men to compete in women’s competitions for the first time in its 55-year history.
The boxing governing body proposed its recently enacted policy nearly a year and a half ago.
Per National Review, USA Boxing then stated that the “purpose” of allowing men to compete against women “is to provide fairness and safety for all boxers.”
The policy outlines that “a boxer who transitions from male to female is eligible to compete in the female category” if certain criteria are met. These include the completion of so-called “gender reassignment surgery” and maintaining a testosterone count below a certain level.
The policy also permits boxers “who [transition] from female to male” to compete in the male category if certain conditions are met.
USA Boxing sanctions both men’s and women’s Olympic-style boxing events and competitions across the country.
Female athletes across several sports slammed the policy.
“Women are not just a testosterone level,” former collegiate swimmer and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines said in an interview.
She went on to say that contrary to the policy’s stated purpose, “the safety of women has been compromised by USA Boxing’s new policies and guidelines.”
“Now we are glorifying men, we’re calling them champions, we’re giving them titles, they’re winning prize money, for punching women in the face,” Gaines said. “That’s the purpose of boxing, or [mixed martial arts (MMA)], or any fighting sport.”
“We’re glorifying that and we’re calling that progressive,” Gaines pointed out. She said that the policy is instead “regressive” and “utterly misogynistic.”
Boxer and MMA fighter Claressa Shields wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that allowing men to fight women was “not the right decision.”
“This is wrong on so many levels,” wrote Australian boxer Ebanie Bridges on X:
I will never agree to this… it’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and power lifting but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU not just break a record…however I think it’s wrong in ALL SPORT…
Bridges noted the apparent absence of debate surrounding the entry of women into men’s competitions. “cos it’s not a threat,” she wrote:
It ain’t just about the test levels what about their bone density and a heap of other biological factors. Cutting ur bits off and adding boobs won’t take back the masculine maturity your body has gone thru before you decided u are now a woman.
“I don’t care about ‘political correctness’ it’s politically incorrect to have a man fighting a woman,” Bridges wrote in another X post. “The girls need to stick together or women’s sport in 50 years will be filled with male born champions.”
Boxer and MMA fighter Amanda Serrano agreed.
“All I want is equal opportunity for all,” she wrote on X. “Our bodies. Our decision.”
