UFC champion Ronda Rousey elaborates on Fallon Fox stance, says transgender fighter has ‘an advantage' against females

Even after already addressing the Fallon Fox situation earlier this week, outspoken Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey wasn't done sharing her opinion on mixed martial arts' (MMA) first openly transgender fighter.

Fox has been grabbing headlines in the MMA world for weeks now; however, the situation exploded earlier this week when UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione went on an extremely offensive rant that resulted in a suspension from his employers.

Mitirone's rant about Fox was not taken lightly and even caused the UFC to release it's official "Code of Conduct" policy for fighters.

That didn't stop "Rowdy" from discussing the subject just one day later, though, and while her comments weren't nearly as offensive or controversial as Mitrione's, the UFC's first-ever female champion did make headlines by saying Fox can, "chop her pecker off, but it's still the same bone structure a man has."

Here's what Rousey told the NY Post:

"She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it's still the same bone structure a man has. It's an advantage. I don't think it's fair. It's not something that happened to her, it was a decision she made. She should be aware in her career after that, it's going to be an arduous path. I don't know why she's surprised by that. It's going to draw a lot of emotions. What if she became UFC champion and we had a transgender women's champion? It's a very socially difficult situation."

A socially difficult situation indeed, and one that fans and media in the sport can't seem to stop talking about.

Rousey was a guest on Friday's (April 12, 2013) edition of "Inside MMA" on AXS TV and naturally, hosts Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice asked the 26-year-old for her opinion on Fox and of course, Rousey didn't hold anything back.

Her words:

"If you're a man who identifies as a woman, or a woman who identifies as a man that's something that you can't control, that's not your choice, that's just the way you are. But being transgender - that does require a choice and I think it needs to be a case-by-case basis. On Fallon Fox's case she went through puberty entirely as a man, and though I do believe that her identity is that of a woman -- at this point in her life it's just not scientifically possible for her body to be equal to that of a woman. If it was another case where someone identified it much earlier and underwent hormone suppression and then later when they were old enough underwent the surgery, I think that that would be much more understandable. But I think transgender fighters should be taken on a case-by-case basis and if you already developed through puberty as a man I don't think you should be able to compete as a woman."

Rousey's assessment of the situation seems fair; however, it's difficult to take it on a "case-by-case" basis when there is really only one case to gather information and build an opinion around. The subject is highly controversial and while Rousey tries to avoid talking about it, she did not want to sound uneducated when the topic of transgender fighters is broached.

While opinions throughout the MMA community differ, Rousey ultimately believes the nature of Fox's transition from a male to a female gives her an advantage against female competitors.

"I really try not to give my opinion on this subject until I really extensively researched it and it's just the bone density and bone structure you have after you've gone through puberty as a man, it is an advantage over a woman. In something like MMA if somebody kicks you and you check a kick, the difference between the person who threw the kick and is checking the kick gets hurt though the bone density and that's an advantage. So that's just my opinion and if -- I know other people before that wanted to compete in sports but they identified as a woman and then they waited until after their career to get the surgery because it's just, science hasn't caught up yet you can't do a complete transformation yet if you've already gone through puberty."

The champion's comments on Fox this time around sound far more educated than the, "chop her pecker off" line, but with that said it's all but guaranteed this won't be the last time Fox's name comes out of Rousey's mouth.