The World Boxing Council's president intends to open up additional opportunities for transgender boxers to hone their skills.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told the UK newspaper in an interview that his organization is trying to create a separate league for boxers who identify as transgender people out of a sense of "safety and inclusiveness".
“We are going to put out a global call for those who are interested in 2023 and we will set up the protocols, start consultation and most likely create a league and a tournament,” Sulaiman said.
Sulaiman's organization said that it is currently “creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box.” Under the proposed regulations, boxers who were born with opposite genders would not compete against one another. In other words, a trans male fighter who was born a woman could only compete against other trans male fighters who were also born women.
“In boxing, a man fighting a woman must never be accepted regardless of gender change. There should be no grey area around this, and we want to go into it with transparency and the correct decisions. Woman to man or man to woman transgender change will never be allowed to fight a different gender by birth.”
Image Credit: Sky Sports