WAIT... IM CONFUSED... OOOOH' NOW I GET IT... I THINK I DO?!?!
FALLON FOX never wanted to talk about being transsexual. The professional MMA fighter who's been tearing through opponents has been a woman to her training partners and opponents for the last five years. Now, due to circumstances beyond her control, she's being forced out of the closet well before she was ready.
"For years I've known at some point it's very likely the shoe would drop," Fox told Outsports in a phone interview Tuesday. "Maybe someone would guess that I'm trans. Maybe they would know me from my life before I transitioned. I've been waiting for that phone call to happen. And Saturday night, it happened."
Fox was at dinner celebrating a victory when a call came through. It was from a reporter who asked probing questions that clearly lead to one conclusion: The reporter knew Fox's secret past. Within 48 hours she got a call from a former trainer who had been interviewed by the same reporter with the same questions. The secret of Fallon Fox was about to come out.
"These past six years, people have seen me as a woman, not a transsexual," she said. "People in the gym, people I train with, it's been great, it's been awesome. I'm just a woman to them. I don't want that to go away. It's unfortunate that it has to."
Born in the wrong body
Ten years ago, Fox told her parents that she felt like she was born in the wrong body. Her mother rejected the news. Her father told her she was actually a confused gay man. Fox insisted that she wasn't gay, and that she was mostly attracted to other women. Her father was unrelenting and put her in gay-conversion therapy. There she was treated by a gay-conversion therapist who tried to convince Fox that she was a gay man so that he could turn her into a straight man.
When the therapy sessions finally ended, Fox decided to start her sexual transition. She soon began hormone therapy that she has now been on for 10 years. Six years ago, she had gender reassignment surgery.
"For the longest time, my mother didn't want anything to do with me," Fox said. "I wasn't even allowed to come into her house or show up at her door. But as the years went on, they both started coming around a little bit."
That's taken a turn for the worse recently. Fox has not spoken to either of her parents in almost two years.
Shortly after her surgery, Fox took up MMA fighting. In the coming weeks and months she found a love for it. Over the last five years, it has become the reason she gets up in the morning. It is her life's passion.
"I get to train and hit on the bag and let some aggression out," Fox said. "And I love being out in front of the crowd when I compete. I love displaying my skill. All the hours of hard work and training, and you go out there and get to display what you've learned. At least when you lose, you know you tried your best. That fight experience is intoxicating."
She has also become a dominant fighter. In her last match, this past Saturday just hours before the phone call that precipitated her coming out, Fox used a knee to the face to drop her opponent, Ericka Newsome, in 39 seconds.
Fox said she was confident going into that fight because of her preparation. She had watched tape on Newsome and saw she had a weakness: "Erica throws wild punches and doesn't defend her face." Very early in the match, Fox saw what she had seen on the tape, and she took the opening. With a smart, technical move she delivered a knee to Newsome's face and ended the match.
SOURCE: SB NATION
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