After Fallon Fox, Alana McLaughlin recently became only the second transgender fighter to compete in MMA. She took on Celine Provost in her debut at Combate Global on September 10.
After getting wobbled in the first round by her opponent, McLaughlin made a comeback in the second round and finished the fight via a rear-naked choke.
Fox, who was in McLaughlin's corner during the fight, uploaded a post on Twitter commending the 38-year-old's performance in her debut fight.
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After McLaughlin's debut, many MMA personalities came out to criticize the transgender fighter. They were of the notion that the 38-year-old had an unfair physical advantage over her cisgender counterparts.
McLaughlin retweeted a post on Twitter that appeared to be a response to people criticizing her for fighting cisgender women:
"The men who attack trans fighters say they're supporting women, yet they don't believe them when they're harassed, won't fight for their equal pay, fight against their reproductive autonomy, and sexualize and assault them," said the post retweeted by Alana McLaughlin.
Sean O'Malley and Brendan Schaub speak against Alana McLaughlin's participation in women's MMA
Former UFC heavyweight fighter Brendan Schaub recently spoke about Alana McLaughlin on his podcast 'Below the Belt'. 'Big Brown' said that the 38-year-old should be allowed to compete, but only against other transgender fighters:
"Let's say this jacked dude on the left always felt like a woman and wants to transition but then you can't just say someone can't compete at what they wanna do. But clearly the bone structure and the muscle is different than any girl that she's gonna compete against. She was formerly a man, the only way it would make sense and be fair is if she fought another man who transitioned to female. Fighting a girl just doesn't seem right, there's so many advantages. They should be allowed to compete but it should be against other people that transitioned," Brendan Schaub said.
UFC's rising bantamweight prospect Sean O'Malley and UFC middleweight Sean Strickland have also criticized the idea of McLaughlin competing against cisgender women fighters.