Staff Reports
In a world where fairness is often tossed aside in the name of inclusivity, the boxing ring has found itself at the center of a controversy involving Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and the implications of allowing biological males to compete against females. Rafa Lozano, a former Olympic boxer and trainer, recently revealed that Khelif was deemed too dangerous for women to spar with during a boxing retreat in Spain. If that doesn’t raise eyebrows, it’s hard to say what would, especially in an age where participation trophies seem to outweigh common sense.
According to Lozano, the retreat at CAR Blume Sports Center in Madrid turned into a bit of an ‘alphabet soup’ when trying to match up Khelif with other female boxers. Khelif’s fights weren’t exactly child’s play; they were more like a scene from a Rocky film where the underdog gets knocked around by a Russian bear. So dangerous was Khelif that the decision was made to pair her with one of Spain’s top male boxers instead. Apparently, a male opponent was deemed a better match for someone who apparently left other women injured in the ring—a clear case of “it’s only fair if I don’t break you in half.”
REPORT: Spanish Boxing Trainer Says Olympic Fighter Who Failed IBA Gender Tests Was Considered Too Dangerous to Train with Women https://t.co/fkFDaBXWnz via @BreitbartNews
— Dave Samppala (@DaveSamppala) August 12, 2024
Adding fuel to the fire, Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA), noted that certain athletes had been disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships because they had attempted to compete by masquerading as females. It raises a valid question: how many more bodies need to take a hit before sports organizations wake up and smell the coffee? Clearly, fairness in competition seems to be taking a back seat to political correctness.
Lozano made it abundantly clear that allowing Khelif and her Taiwan counterpart, Lin Yu-ting, to box in the female category at the Paris Games was nothing short of unfair. It seems that merely acknowledging biological reality has become a revolutionary stance in the sporting world.
But Lozano isn’t alone in his observation. Mexican boxer Brianda Tamara Cruz, who faced Khelif herself, had quite the story to share. She claimed that Khelif’s punches were more painful than anything she had ever encountered in a 13-year career—an Olympic-sized “thank you, but no thank you,” delivered with a side of bruised ego and a battered face.
While some might call this a thrilling evolution in women’s sports, many are left questioning the validity of categories like “women” and “men” in boxing when the competition is so obviously mismatched. Allowing such mismatches isn’t just a ridiculous endeavor; it’s a dangerous one. It turns out there’s more to sports than just inclusivity—like, say, protecting the integrity of women’s competitions and the safety of athletes. It’s about time the sporting community took a long, hard look in the mirror and decided whether it was more important to pat themselves on the back for being progressive or actually to uphold a level playing field.
