Does a video circulating on social media show mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox speaking in a "male" voice? No, that's not true: The clip appears to have been digitally altered to make it sound lower. Fox, who is an openly transgender female athlete, denied that the recording reflects the way she speaks. Other videos of the same event show that Fox's voice doesn't sound like what's in the clip.
The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) posted on April 6, 2023. It said:
WANNA KNOW WHY MEN DO NOT BELONG IN WOMEN SPORTS.
THIS: 😳😳😳😳
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Tue Apr 18 16:10:52 2023 UTC)
Fallon Fox is a now-retired Ohio-born professional mixed martial arts fighter. In 2013, she participated in the MMA tournament as the first openly transgender female athlete to enter the competition, which was when the footage shared on social media was recorded. It captures a fight between Fox and Ericka Newsome that resulted in Fox's opponent being knocked out in less than a minute.
At the 0:23 mark of the video on Twitter, Fox says in a low-pitched voice:
I'm feeling excellent! That was sweet, huh? Did you like that? Yeah! And I want to tell everyone else I'm coming in this tournament. Every women in this tournament better look out. I'm freaking coming!
However, a longer video showing the same 2013 fight demonstrates that Fox's voice doesn't sound like that. At the 9:46 mark, the same words are said in a much higher-pitched voice.
On April 6, 2023, Fox shared the clip in question on Twitter, saying:
Not even my voice.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about gender-related matters can be found here and here.
