The World Boxing Council plans to introduce a new category solely for transgender fighters in 2023, according to reports.
The sport will soon initiate a ‘global call’ for trans athletes to come forward ahead of next year, with the aim of setting up a fresh league or tournament.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman believes that boxing needs to evolve for ‘safety and inclusion’ reasons.
In an interview with The Telegraph, he insisted that trans fighters will not be allowed to compete against non-trans athletes as a result of their proposal.
‘It is the time to do this, and we are doing this because of safety and inclusion. We have been the leaders in rules for women’s boxing – so the dangers of a man fighting a woman will never happen because of what we are going to put in place.
‘In boxing, a man fighting a woman must never be accepted regardless of gender change. There should be no grey area around this, and we want to go into it with transparency and the correct decisions.
‘Woman to man or man to woman transgender change will never be allowed to fight a different gender by birth.’
Adopting the ‘at birth’ rule, the sport will only allow trans fighters to compete against each other if the athletes were born with the same sex.
Sulaiman added: ‘We are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box.
‘We do not yet know the numbers that there are out there, but we’re opening a universal registration in 2023, so that we can understand the boxers that are out there – and we’ll start from there.’
The concept of transgender athletes competing in sport has been thrown into the spotlight in recent years, with swimming, weightlifting, cycling and rugby union among the sports affected by the debate.