VICTORIAVILLE, Quebec (LifeSiteNews) – A female boxer withdrew from a Quebec championship fight after learning that her competitor was a man claiming to be a woman.
On November 15, Dr. Katia Bissonnette revealed why she stepped down from the 2023 Provincial Golden Glove Championship in Victoriaville, Quebec upon discovering that her opponent, “Mya” Walmsley, is a biological male just hours before she was set to fight him. Bissonnette had been set to face him during the October 27 and 29 competitions.
“I came down from my hotel room to head towards the room where all the boxers were warming up,” Bissonnette told Reduxx. “My coach suddenly took me aside and told me he received information by text message, which he had then validated, that my opponent was not a woman by birth. We did not have any other additional information.”
It was safety concerns which caused her to withdraw from the match: Bissonnette cited a 2020 study by the University of Utah which revealed the differences between strength in men and women. The research showed that “a male blow has 163% more impact than a women’s, even adjusted for weight.”
“In the group studied, the weakest man remains physically superior to the strongest woman,” Bissonnette added.
She explained that if men are allowed to compete against women in combat sports, women will soon leave the sport rather than fight against men.
“Women shouldn’t have to bear the physical and psychological risks brought by a man’s decisions regarding his personal life and identity,” Bissonnette continued. “There should be two categories: biological male and female.”
According to Bissonnette, Boxing Canada rules forbade the Quebec Boxing Federation from informing competitors if they will face biological men who claim to be women to prevent the men from being “discriminated against.”
“However, after confirmation, this policy only applies when a sex change has taken place before puberty,” she explained.
Walmsley, an Australian, moved to Canada two years ago to attend Concordia University. His fight with Bissonnette would have been his first recorded fight in Canada against a woman. It is unclear if he fought in the women’s category in Australia.
“[Walmsley] would have boxed as a man in Australia,” Bissonnette said. “In Quebec, on his file, it is mentioned that he had 0 fights as a woman.”
The Quebec Boxing Federation justified their decision by saying that they had chosen an appropriate referee for the match. Following Bissonnette’s withdrawal from the competition, Walmsley won by default.
However, Walmsley did not seem content with his victory, instead condemning Bissonnette for speaking to the press about Walmsley being a male, and Bissonnette’s decision not to fight.
“Rather than turning to me, my coach or the Quebec Olympic Boxing Federation for more information, she decided to turn directly to the media to out me,” Walmsley whined.
“This kind of behavior puts athletes at risk of being excluded or receiving personal attacks based on hearsay … I am afraid that this type of accusation could eventually be used to delegitimize athletes in the women’s category and justify arbitrary and invasive regulations,” he continued, apparently choosing not to address Bissonnette’s safety concerns.
Indeed, Bissonnette’s concerns are well founded in both scientific research and incidents where women did face biological men claiming to be women in combat sports.
A notorious case is that of Fallon Fox, a male cage fighter who claims to be a woman, who openly posted about how he enjoys hurting women in his fights.
“For the record, I knocked [two] women out,” he bragged, in response to criticism for participating in the women’s division of the violent sport.
“One woman’s skull was fractured, the other not. And just so you know, I enjoyed it. See, I love smacking up TE[R]Fs in the cage who talk transphobic nonsense. It’s bliss. Don’t be mad,” he gloated.
TERF, which stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” is an insult used by transgender activists to describe any woman who will not say that biological males are, or can become, women.
Many female athletes are standing up to the LGBT mob to reclaim women’s sports for biological women.
One champion is former University of Kentucky and All-American swimmer Riley Gaines. She has made dozens of media appearances in recent years, bringing attention to the NCAA’s decision to allow William “Lia” Thomas to swim against females. Predictably, Thomas went from being one of the lowest-ranked male swimmers in the country to an above-average female one, even winning the 500-yard freestyle national championship.