The WBC will be addressing something huge at their next annual convention.
A statement was released by the World Boxing Council where they said that the discussion of transgender boxing would be the main topic. You can read it below.
Above it reads that the participation of transgender people in combat sports is a controversial topic. It’s argued that transgender women have an unfair advantage over cisgender women in competitive sports and may endanger them, due to differences in human physiology, and that these differences are not sufficiently reversed by transgender hormone therapies.
Another opinion sector argues that medically prescribed puberty blockers and estrogen suppress testosterone levels and reduce the mass of muscle in transgender women, reducing potential competitive advantage.
The WBC values are loyalty, fairness, integrity and fairness. They want to continue elevating boxing and protecting the health and well-being of all boxers as it is their number one priority. They are committed to protecting human rights, eradicating discrimination, helping out those who need it the most and ending it with “We believe that boxing is for everyone”.
In 2018, Patricio Manuel the five-time national amateur boxing champion became the first transgender boxer in the history of the United States to have a professional fight. He fought his last fight as a woman in 2012 vs. Tiara Brown.
Manuel’s next bout was after he transitioned, where he fought Hugo Aguilar in 2018 and won by unanimous decision in his professional boxing debut.
Aguilar only knew of Manuel’s transition two days prior to the bout. He stated “For me it’s very respectable. It doesn’t change anything for me. In the ring he wants to win and I want to win too.”
In 2019, Manuel became the face of the iconic boxing brand Everlast, in a move lauded for showing that there are “many ways to be a man.”
I will keep everyone updated on the next annual convention and what they discuss about the topic of officially having boxing welcome transgenders to the sport.
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