“The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione,” stated the mixed martial arts governing body, which recently suspended Mitrione after he called male-to-female transsexual fighter Fallon Fox “a lying, sick, sociopathic disgusting freak” in an online broadcast.

Fox had sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in 2006, before beginning her professional MMA career in 2012. She won her second women’s featherweight fight last month and subsequently came out as transsexual. In historical context, the ensuing furore was utterly predictable, even though the decision to allow Fox to compete was based upon the International Olympic Committee’s guidelines for transsexual athletes, ratified in 2004 and revised after the gender test row around Caster Semanya.

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This post was orginally published in The Guardian.