MMA analyst Luke Thomas has waded into the ongoing debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports in a recent video, offering a position that puts him at odds with much of the progressive political camp he otherwise identifies with.
Responding to the backlash WNBA player Sophie Cunningham received for saying she disagreed with trans athletes competing in women’s sports, Thomas made clear he does not view the question as unreasonable.
“I’m not right-wing at all. I believe in social democracy,” he read out from a comment, before adding, “while a trans person might not technically be a man anymore, it’s just not fair for them to compete in women’s sports.”
Thomas leaned heavily on the work of South African sports scientist Dr. Ross Tucker to build his case, describing him as someone he would never characterize as “transphobic.” According to Thomas, Tucker’s research centers on a simple question: why does a separate women’s category exist in sport at all?
“The answer is very obvious. It’s to remove the male advantage,” Thomas said. “That’s the entire point of women’s sports.”
When the conversation turned specifically to combat sports, Thomas did not hedge. Referencing the controversy sparked years ago when Fallon Fox attempted to compete in MMA, he said, “I do not know if that is a good idea to allow someone like that to compete. Maybe I’m missing something but that I don’t I’m not in favor of that particularly the dire consequences you know they can happen or the reverse of it.”
He added that there are “just too many questions about what damage can be done to make me think that this is a good idea.”
Still, Thomas used the moment to press a broader political contradiction rather than simply align with conservative talking points. He argued that the same people demanding women’s sports be “protected” as a class routinely reject the very concept of protected classes in nearly every other context, from college admissions to federal contracting to voting rights.
“There’s a total incoherency across it,” he said. “And I would like to see someone answer for that.”
He also pushed back on framing the issue as a matter of feelings rather than structure.
“We are not talking about how it makes us feel,” he said. “It is built along the basic fundamental idea that in order to make women’s sport possible, you have to remove the male advantage. That is the definition of treating them as a protected class.”
Thomas closed by noting the scale of the issue relative to other political concerns, but insisted the underlying question, particularly in combat sports, deserved a more consistent answer than either side has offered.
