World Boxing Council to create transgender category
The World Boxing Council, one of the four governing bodies for the sport, will introduce a transgender category from this year, its president Mauricio Sulaiman has said.
The WBC is going to create a league and a tournament but title belts may not be on the line. According to The Telegraph, WBC wants to eliminate a scenario where a ‘man fights a woman’.
A ‘at birth rule’ will be used, which means a transgender boxer who is regered as male at birth will be allowed to fight others who have also been regered as male at birth and those regered as female at birth will be allowed to fight others who have been regered as female at birth.
“The World Boxing Council, through its medical committee and technical committee, reached a determination after studies and an important talk during the WBC annual convention, an absolute and total confirmation was reached to not allow fights between people born men against people born women regardless of their current gender,” Sulaiman told ESPN. “That is the main determination to not allow fights between men and women for the protection that we have always had of women’s boxing.”
The WBC president said the process of identifying those who can compete in the transgender category will begin soon.
FINA, world swimming’s governing body, is set to create an ‘open category’ and has set up a working group for it.FIFA, football’s governing body, and world athletics said they would review their transgender policy after it came to light that FINA was looking creating the ‘open category’
