Maho Bah-Villemagne, the first transgender boxer to officially fight for men – Libération

The news was announced last week during a press conference organized in a gymnasium in the northern districts of Marseille: Maho Bah-Villemagne will enter the ring against Evan Ferrandi (18 years old, 5 wins out of 6) this Saturday, November 2 for an amateur fight among men. On paper, the match seems trivial. Two boxers in the -54 kg category will face off in a sports complex in the Mediterranean metropolis, in front of at best a few hundred spectators. But for the 30-year-old boxer, assigned female at birth, the fight is a first victory to compete under the gender identity of his choice.

After 27 amateur English boxing fights among women (12 victories, 15 defeats) and a status of vice-champion of France in the -52kg category in 2022, Maho Bah-Villemagne will become the first transgender French boxer to officially fight among men. Since the announcement of the event, requests have been pouring in. “I have a very busy week, in training and requests from journalists. I need to take a break from all of this,” he first says by text message when asked. The day before his fight, the boxer finally spoke about the weight of the event: “I feel a lot of pressure, I know that I am expected and depending on my result, it could change a lot of things for us, trans people.”

“We’re going to come out of the closet”

After long months of preparation and canceled fights, some of which were due, according to him, to “media pressure” felt by the opponents, the boxer is finally ready to put on the gloves. “There is a story of virility that men play in boxing which is very strong. Evan Ferrandi is very courageous to accept this challenge, many would not have done it. notes Maho Bah-Villemagne. If this fight attracts so much attention, it must be, according to the boxer, only because it represents “the beginning of a new era”. “The world is not so binary: like it or not, trans and non-binary people exist. We hid for a long time, but now we are going to come out of the closet and we are going to have to take a place in society,” he claims.

“I didn’t feel like a woman, but it took me a long time to transition, because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to box anymore. I knew that there was no legislation and that trans people did not exist in sport. I didn’t have my place, I had to create it and I didn’t think I was capable of it. recalls the athlete, who began his medical transition during the summer of 2023. Before him, no trans boxer came forward to the French Boxing Federation; he therefore finds himself in legal limbo. At this period, he already experienced his distance from sport as a “grief”. The Varois therefore only thinks of one thing, once his sex change is made official in the civil registry in February 2024: getting back into the ring.

“It remains unclear”

The founder of the Massilia boxing collective in Marseille is making calls to members of the federation. Faced with their silence, he decides to call on a lawyer and publicize his case to try to obtain a first license in professional boxing, which would allow him to make a living from his sport. “I had no refusal, but I was the first, so we had to define rules, that’s what took the most time,” notes the boxer.

Ultimately, the federation’s decision arrived more quickly than expected. Given his track record, he can claim a professional license if he competes in five additional fights and undergoes regular medical tests to monitor his testosterone levels. In the meantime, the federation issues him a new amateur license. Rules created urgently for the athlete. “It remains unclear. For example, I am asked for medical examinations, but there is no reference hormone level. regrets Maho Bah-Villemagne.

“Maho’s case will set a precedent”

One of the members of the federation’s medical commission was surprised by the Team that his license be issued so quickly, while safety is essential in combat sports and there is still a lack of studies to assess the risks of pitting a person born female against a man. “The federations are helpless in the face of the absence of clear regulations and harmonization on the inclusion of transgender people, but the case of Maho will set a precedent at the level of the French Boxing Federation and perhaps other disciplines which ‘bring closer’, observes Frédérique Vidal, co-president of the Fier-play association, which organized the Pride House during the last Paris Olympics. When questioned, the French Boxing Federation did not respond to our requests.

However, the boxer’s battle is far from over. Maho Bah-Villemagne wants to make his voice heard within the federation so that there is “real clear rules for trans people who would like to sign up for boxing” In France. However, he risks being asked these same questions in the rest of his career. If he manages to turn professional, the man who is today a computer lieutenant in the Air Force will have to face new regulations, this time, from professional international leagues (the best known of which are the WBA, the IBF and WBO). Unlike at the national level, there is at least one precedent: the American Patricio Manuel, the first transgender boxer to win a professional fight in 2018.