Boyd Burton, a former U.S. Navy sailor, has been making headlines since 2012 when he joined the MMA. But he didn’t make headlines as Boyd Burton. It was only after it was revealed that he was fighting in the MMA against women as a "she" that Burton drew national attention.
Many big names in combat sports believe that Burton, now called Fallon Fox, should not be allowed to compete in female bouts, UFC fighter Ronda Rousey among them.
Fox has indeed fought women in professional MMA fights and only one woman has been able to defeat him. Fox didn't tell the MMA community about his “gender reassignment” surgery when he first joined. It was only revealed once he had brutally knocked out a contender in just 39 seconds.
His strength overpowers his competitors. He once sent opponent Tamikka Brents to the hospital with both a concussion and a broken eye socket. The eye injury required seven staples to fix.
Brents would later say in an interview with Whoa TV that she had never “felt so overpowered ever in my life.”
“I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night,” she said.
“I can’t answer whether it’s because she was born a man or not, because I’m not a doctor. I can only say, I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life, and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right.”
You can see in the fight below that she didn’t get the chance to fight back. She was completely overwhelmed by Boyd Burton, aka Fallon Fox, in the ring.
Fox believes that he's at a disadvantage. During an interview with Inside MMA’s Ron Kruck, Fox argued that he produces less testosterone than female fighters because he lacks the organs to do so. Because he has neither testicles nor ovaries to tell his body to produce more testosterone, he can now only produce a small base amount, Fox said.
Does that make it permissible, though? Should a man, despite being willfully neutered, ever be able to compete in women’s sports? Would they let a transitioned woman fight against men?