Mike Tyson cited as Tony Bellew rages over trans athletes – ‘Protect sport all together’

Tony Bellew has raged over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports – and has cited Mike Tyson to back his argument up.

The gender debate in sports continues to rumble on, with a trans athletics star set to take part at the upcoming Paralympics.

There were rumours over Imane Khelif’s gender during the recent Olympics, with the Algerian facing plenty of scrutiny as she won gold.

Khelif, for her part, has long insisted that she’s female and was born and raised as one, too.

Bellew, speaking to Instant Casino, has defended Khelif.

But he did say that trans athletes competing against women is ‘unfair’ while using Tyson and Serena Williams as part of his argument.

Bellew said: “One thing I don’t agree with is this transgender thing we’re going down where this person’s born a man and says ‘right I want to compete against women’.

“I’m not having that in any way, shape or form. I think that is very unfair.

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“And I think we’ve got to get away from men and women being all one species. No we’re not, we’re different.

“I don’t understand that. The greatest tennis player ever in Serena Williams, she could not compete with a man on the tennis court who’s in the top 50.

“We’re different species. And I don’t say that to degrade women anyway, because my genuine thoughts, I believe women are better than men, stronger than us.

“If men gave birth, there wouldn’t be a baby in this world.

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“I’ve witnessed it four times. And I would not do that for the life of me. So women, I’ve always believed the stronger, the better.

“The morals and the characteristics of a good, decent, strong woman are better than the man’s.

“But when it comes to sport and physicality, there is no comparison whatsoever. It would be unfair.

“I mean, if Mike Tyson was to come out tomorrow and say, ‘I now identify as a woman and I’m going to go in the heavyweight division.’ You would just go, ‘this is just wrong’.

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“It’s what people want to identify. I’ve got no problem with whatever you want to identify as. That’s sound, you do that, but don’t force yourself on somebody else.

“I want to have some kind of physical combat or some kind of physical gains from what you’re identifying as.

“I disagree with that. Just protect the sport.

“It’s not about protecting women’s sport. Protect sport all together.”

Tyson, meanwhile, is currently preparing for his fight with Jake Paul on November 15.

And Bellew has raged over the fight, expressing a belief that it’s ‘purely money motivated’.

“He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. If you’ve seen the face off yesterday with the pushing and shoving – it’s a laugh, it’s a joke,” he said.

“This is purely money involved. Purely money motivated.”