McLaughlin, a former U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, discussed her stance on MMA in a recent interview.
The star expressed frustration with other transgender athletes who agree to face men or only other trans women in an attempt to be seen as “one of the good ones.” McLaughlin believes this approach is misguided and fails to gain acceptance.
“Most of the challenges I’ve gotten have been from other trans women who are trying to sort of thread that needle of ‘I’m going to be one of the good ones,’ and, you know, it never works out for them. There was another girl in Florida who actually fought a couple of men in MMA bouts at, like, a regional level, and, um, I think she beat one of them and lost to another one, and still, everybody treated her like— and she’s like, ‘I don’t understand.'” – she revealed in an interview.
She explained that while she has received offers to face male opponents for significant sums of money, she remains committed to competing solely against women in her weight class with comparable experience.
“My intention was to, you know, only fight people that are on a similar level of training as me, uh, in the women’s category, period.”
However, she acknowledged currently considering one offer to face a man overseas, citing financial reasons. McLaughlin noted it would pay more than any of her previous bouts, but emphasized this does not change her overall position on competing against women.
“Um, but this offer that I’ve gotten was probably a flippant one from, uh, you know, a promotion that— I don’t think they’re based in the US. ”
“They do a lot of their fights overseas, and this would have to be overseas for it to be sanctioned because they were like, ‘Well, we’ll pay you to fight a man.’ And, you know, it’s a lot more money than I’ve ever made in a fight before, um, and I’m probably going to take it.”
Considering the clues McLaughlin has given there’s a good chance she’s talking about Thailand based Fight circus. Fight circus has previously had an intergender fight – Trans boxer was matched with a Japanese kickboxer in wheelchair handicap match. They were paired with Saenchai and Bob Sapp who were carting them around. Considering FC also has money to be able to afford MMA legends, they’re the clear runner among stunt based MMA promotions.
“I wasn’t going to, but then I got to thinking, you know, like with the state of trans women in sports right now, I certainly can’t make things any worse.”
As McLaughlin continues to advocate for her right to compete in women’s divisions, the opposition remains loud and plentiful.
Trans MMA star Alana McLaughlin was frustrated with the commentary of her MMA debut – claiming it downplayed her lack of physical advantages
Trans MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin has expressed frustration with the commentary during her MMA debut, claiming it downplayed the evenness of the match.
McLaughlin, who made history as the second openly transgender athlete to compete in MMA, said she preferred watching the fight without commentary. “I think I liked it better without the commentary because then you just see the even fight,” she explained in another interview. “Pretty even fight, you know.”
The fighter took issue with how the commentary portrayed the physical aspects of the match, particularly regarding her ability to take hits. She refuted claims that she could shrug off punches due to any inherent advantage, stating, “Everybody wants to talk about ‘Oh, you just shrugged off those hits because you can’t be knocked out because magic bones or some s*it,’ but like, Celine [Provost, her opponent] shrugged off my best shots, you know.”
McLaughlin also expressed disappointment that her fight wasn’t more celebrated for its competitive nature. “If I were a cis woman, that would have been like a contender for fight of the night. People would have been excited about that fight. It was like Rocky movie s*it,” she said.
Another thing worth mentioning – is that Combate Global actually went out of their way and paid for McLaughlin’s camp in lead up to the event. This is highly unusual and not something any promotion typically does for a competitor they’re about to feature. If anything, this would indicate they were favoring her due to the publicity she was about to bring them.
The 41-year-old star, who transitioned later in life, emphasized that her goal in competing was to create visibility for the trans community and “make space” for trans athletes.
