Fallon Fox biopic underway, story about the first openly transgender MMA fighter
Mark Gordon Pictures is set to produce a biopic about Fallon Fox, the first openly transgender mixed martial arts competitor according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter.
Fox, 45, has not competed in MMA since recording a first round knockout win over Tamikka Brents in 2014.
The screenplay is to be written by husband and wife, T Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper. Mark Gordon and Bonnie-Chance Roberts will produce for Mark Gordon Pictures, along with John Papsidera. Fox will serve as a consultant on the film.
“Fallon Fox is a remarkable woman and athlete who has withstood and achieved so much in her life and whose story is far too little known. She is a universal, living icon of strength and persistence. It is a true honor to work with her, and the indomitable writing team of T and Allison Cooper, to bring her experiences more to light and to share her with the world,” Roberts said in a statement.
Fox was born male at birth but has gone on the record stating that she recalled struggling with her gender as early as age five or six. As a teenager, Fox believed she may have been a gay man, but learned the term “transgender” at the age of 17. She continued living as a heterosexual man and married her then-girlfriend at the age of 19, when the latter became pregnant with their daughter. Fox then joined the US Navy to support her new family and served as an operations specialist on the USS Enterprise.
After leaving the Navy, Fox enrolled at the University of Toledo, but dropped out after ongoing psychological stress from her unresolved gender issues. After leaving college, Fox worked as a truck driver in order to afford sex reassignment surgery. She moved to Chicago, Illinois, with her daughter. In 2006, Fox traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, to undergo gender reassignment surgery, breast augmentation, and hair transplant surgeries at Bangkok National Hospital.
The lone loss on Fox’s professional MMA record comes at the hands of current UFC flyweight, Ashlee Evans-Smith under the Championship Fighting Alliance banner.
34 states are currently considering legislation that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ interscholastic sports teams. Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee and Mississippi have already adopted those bans into law, joining Idaho, which became the first state to do so in 2020.
