Ashlee Evans-Smith, the woman who handed me my first professional MMA loss, now says that I have unfair advantages that should bar me from competing against other women. Let me repeat: The fighter WHO BEAT ME says I have UNFAIR ADVANTAGES.

"I don't feel like Fallon should fight dudes," she said. "I don't feel like she should fight women. I feel like there should be a unique organization for those needs. She did have an advantage. She definitely did." [Check out the interview of Evans-Smith below]

Her interview was hard to watch. She started out by saying that I didn't have a strength advantage or a cardio advantage, which is exactly what I've been saying this whole time. Then she went on to say that I hit hard.

Damn right I hit hard! I’m a MMA fighter and that’s what we do! It’s not as if there are not other female MMA fighters who can hit as hard as or harder than me. Marciea Allen has trained with me before, and it’s been my experience that she hits harder than me. When I fought Allana Jones, both of us could tell that I hit harder than her. So, I fit pretty neatly in the variation of strength and punching power alongside my sister competitors.

I'm not complaining about the advantages Ashlee had over me, and I lost. Her leg strength was stronger than mine for sure. It aided her technique when I took her down and she just sprang back up almost every time. It plays well into her fighting style.

And she admitted that her cardio was better for this fight. So, do I then go around complaining about her physical attributes or skill? Do I now say, "Hey, Ashley was taller than me, her legs were stronger, her cardio was better. She beat me, what the hell? I think that fighters with her characteristics should be in a separate category from all other female fighters!"

No, I won't say that. I realize that all female fighters come with different attributes and we compete with each other in order to see who is better at getting around them within the category of "woman." That is the whole point.

She needs to get it together. It’s not as if I knocked her out in five seconds like Veronica Rothlenhouser did. Yes, that was her amateur career. But seriously, what happens if she faces her again? What happens if she faces Julia Budd or Ediane Gomes? What happens if she drops down to 135 and fights Sara McMann, Sarah Kaufman, or Holly Holm? Those are women with strength or punching power that is likely equal to or greater than mine.

But, that's clearly not really what this is about. This is about the category she has me in within her own mind. It's apparent to me that many people see me as "transgender" and not "woman," meaning they don't look at me as female, they don't look at me as male, they look at me as something "other". How rude and uneducated! All of this "misgendering" because they are not used experiencing a trans woman.

I am not an "other." I am female, a woman. I am classified as a transgender woman or transsexual woman. The terms simply label the type of woman that I am. Black woman, white woman, lesbian woman, and straight woman are other examples of labels we put on different types of women. Saying that I should be segregated in a class of only trans women is ignorant and discriminatory. It's much like how they tried to say that black women shouldn't be allowed in track when they first competed. They said they belonged in a separate category all to themselves.

Every minority in sports has to go through this, and all because of ignorance and fear. It's only been within the last hundred years or so that modern medicine has created the ability for people to change their sex. Individuals like myself will have to struggle against the mindset of people like Ashlee Evans-Smith. It's sad that we have to repeat history over and over again. But, this is the reality.

Some of the MMA world is acting like she accomplished some great feat, as if she beat a male fighter. No, not even close. She defeated another female fighter – plain and simple.

She needs to stop crying about competing against me. The whole thing is just silly.

Perhaps one day she will wake up and realize that she fought another woman. I don't know. I can only hope.

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