Yesterday (Dec. 29), The Telegraph published an interview with World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman, who announced plans to create a transgender league and tournament within the sport he oversees. In his proposal, the WBC will begin to reach out to interested parties next year:
“We are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box. We do not yet know the numbers that there are out there, but we’re opening a universal registration in 2023 so that we can understand the boxers that are out there — and we’ll start from there.”
Among the rules laid out, Sulaiman stated that trans athletes will only be able to compete against each other. In addition, the WBC would look into an “at birth” policy, which means “a trans fighter born a man would only be able to fight a fellow trans fighter born a man.” As for the reasons behind the aforementioned decision, the president stressed the importance of “safety and inclusion”:
“It is the time to do this… We have been the leaders in rules for women’s boxing — so the dangers of a man fighting a woman will never happen because of what we are going to put in place.”
He continued: “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.”
The WBC previously provided a list of guidelines for transgender boxers in August. The international organization also promised to “keep researching with the utmost professionals in healthcare to have a greater understanding of the matter, and will keep looking for fairness in the sport and equality.”