Earlier this year we reported on a clip that went viral in our community. That clip featured Gita-Marie Figueroa. Figueroais a trans MMA athlete out of Florida but unlike other trans athletes – Gita-Marie chooses to compete against her biological gender.
While this is certainly way less controversial it deprives her of the press coverage that both Fallon Fox and Alana McLaughlin received.
Figueroa has an amateur MMA record consisting of one win and one loss – both within WCFL. But she just competed for the third time.
She was facing Manny Pinto.
Previously Israel Adesanya reacted to a clip of her competing in MMA and pondered how it’s possible someone licensed the contest.
Adesanya’s attitudes mirror those of World Boxing Council which recently deemed trans participation unfair.
“So, a transgender woman combatant may have an unfair advantage over her cisgender woman combatant.”
“So, a cisgender male combatant may have an unfair advantage over his transgender male combatant.”
In terms of MMA, recent conference of Ringside physicians reached similar conclusions.
The association outlined that in terms of science there is no fix for the advantages male puberty provides.
The other science related conclusion ties into a conclusion mirroring World Boxing Council – trans males carry a disadvantage competing against men while trans women carry an advantage competing over biological women.
There’s also the issue of females in mixed martial arts not identifying as feminine and yet still objecting to getting labeled as cis. Not to mention that they generally do not consent to inclusion of trans women in female categories.
This isn’t a big surprise considering many of the women active in MMA today came up training with men and are very acutely aware of advantages male puberty provides first hand.
Not to mention that fringe fractions believe Gita-Marie Figuroa was actually transphobic for competing against men.
Considering Alana McLaughlin announced she has a bout in the works this story has yet to reach its’ conclusion.
The entire video is available online.