British commentator Piers Morgan weighed in on an MMA match from the weekend which saw an openly male-to-female transgender athlete handily beat a female opponent, calling the match “sickening” and warning that the trend of allowing biological male athletes to compete in women’s sports could prove “deadly.”
As The Daily Wire reported earlier Monday, “Alana McLaughlin — a biological male and former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces — beat Celine Provost with a rear-naked choke in the second round.”
“In order for McLaughlin to compete, the fighter had to pass a hormone panel, which McLaughlin did. McLaughlin said that it was difficult to find a female opponent willing to get into the ring for the fight, regardless,” The Daily Wire noted.
Morgan, though, pointed out that it wasn’t necessarily the outcome of the match that was concerning — that McLaughlin defeated Provost — but that McLaughlin was allowed to compete against biological females, adding that the match was “sickening to watch,” since it appeared to Morgan as though officials were simply allowing a man to beat up a woman.
“Regardless of her military record or personal struggles growing up, none of this justifies what happened on Friday night. I found the bout sickening to watch,” Morgan said. “It was obvious very quickly that McLaughlin was too strong, and equally obvious that this strength came from the 33 years she spent as a biological man.”
Morgan then noted that testosterone level is not the only advantage that biological males may have over biological females. Testing testosterone gives an incomplete picture of how McLaughlin compared physically to Provost, and the mere fact that McLaughlin was born male has its own advantages.
“As I’ve said before, the restrictive hormone treatment that sports authorities make transgender women do before they can compete in women’s sport does not reduce muscle density or power,” Morgan said.
He then suggested that the trend of allowing male-to-female transgender individuals to compete in women’s sports could have deadly consequences. Allowing male-to-female transgender individuals to compete in non-contact sports like track and weightlifting is one thing, Morgan said, allowing them to fight women is another.
“This creates a bad enough unfairness in non-contact sports like sprinting or weightlifting, but when it comes to combat sport like MMA it creates a potentially deadly disparity,” he said.
McLaughlin fired back at critics of the fight in an Instagram post following the match. The post shows McLaughlin with visible facial injuries and the message below the photo suggests that McLaughlin does not believe there was any physical disparity between the two athletes.
“Y’all need to show @cylinelagrande some respect and take your concern trolling elsewhere,” McLaughlin wrote. “She almost finished me more than once, and on scorecards she definitely won that first round.”
“Transphobes are just making my block hand stronger,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin is the second male-to-female transgender athlete to compete in an MMA fight. It does not appear that there are further plans for McLaughlin to fight other athletes, though the athlete admitted that it was difficult to find an opponent for the weekend’s bout.