EXCLUSIVE: An Olympic boxing match between Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Italy’s Angela Carini sparked controversy across the sports world on Thursday.
Khelif’s participation in the match in Paris came with condemnation as the Algerian fighter failed a gender eligibility test and was deemed to have male chromosomes during the 2023 World Championships, which was sanctioned by the International Boxing Association.
Carini abandoned the fight 46 seconds in, but boxing legend Jackie Kallen told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview the bout should never have happened in the first place.
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"I just feel like that because it’s been banned everywhere else in contact sports. I’m just disappointed anyone on the Olympic Committee allowed this to happen as the whole world was watching," Kallen said. "It’s just a black mark on the sport of boxing. We have enough problems with people looking at the sport as brutal or finding other things to complain about. But this really doesn’t help us at all."
Kallen is a trailblazer in the male-dominated sport. She weathered through the challenges of being a female manager to some of the sport’s biggest stars as she guided James Toney and Bronco McKart to world championships.
Known as the "First Lady of Boxing," her life was the inspiration for the 2004 Meg Ryan-led movie "Against the Ropes." In 2023, she became the first female manager to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Kallen knows firsthand the difference in hand-to-hand combat when it comes to combat sport and the difference between a man and a woman.
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"Someone could get badly hurt," she told Fox News Digital. "For this young girl to get hit and watch her dreams go down the drain, it’s just wrong."
Carini said Thursday that one of Khelif’s punches "hurt too much," which caused Carini to withdraw.
IBA President Umar Kremlev said in 2023 that a test at the time determined that Khelif had "XY chromosomes." The IBA said on Wednesday that Khelif failed to "meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition" and was found to have "competitive advantages over females."
The International Olympic Committee cleared Khelif to fight.
"Everyone competing in the women’s category is complying with the competition eligibility rules," IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said. "They are women in their passports, and it’s stated that this is the case, that they are female."
Kallen said that if it was up to her, she would remove Khelif from the Olympics and allow Carini to move on.
Khelif is set to fight again on Saturday.
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