Boxing gender war explodes after star shares monster picture on Instagram

A Hungarian boxer has poured fuel on the fire of boxing’s gender war after she portrayed her upcoming opponent as a cartoon beast.

Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori shared the offensive image. Picture: Getty Images

Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori has inflamed tensions ahead of her upcoming bout with controversial boxer Imane Khelif, sharing a mock photograph of the Algerian portrayed as a cartoon beast.

Hamori had claimed to be not scared of Khelif who had smashed the face of her first opponent, Italian Angela Carini on Thursday (AEST).

“If she or he is a man, it will be a bigger victory for me if I win,” she said.

Hamori meets Khelif on Saturday in the latest scandal of the Paris Olympics but the picture she shared on social media has indicated exactly what she feels she is up against.

The image of the cartoon monster with horns looking down at a young girl was on an Instagram account and Hamori shared it to her stories, but it appeared to have been taken down on Friday evening local time.

An image reposted by Hungarian boxer Luca Hamori.

Khelif has been at the centre of global outrage because the International Boxing Association disqualified her ahead of the 2023 world championship for failing two gender eligibility tests and sparking safety concerns from rivals at the Olympics.

Hamori has told the IOC to “bring it on”, and had earlier said: “I don’t care about the stories, what is going on the social media right now. I just want to stay focused on myself and I know why I came here. I want to get a medal from the Olympic Games. So I don’t care about anything. I will go to the ring and I will get my win.”

Hamori’s sharing of the image on Instagram comes as another disputed XY boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, easily accounted for Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan.

The dramas surrounding the women’s boxing and the participation of both Lin and the Khelif has ignited global outcry about fairness and safety inside the ring.

Algeria's Imane Khelif has been at the centre of the controversy. Picture: AFP

The International Olympic Committee insists it will not change the boxing rules, which only demand a passport listing the competitor as being female, and has ruled out “pretty disgraceful” sex testing, which was used up until the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams has also criticised the International Boxing Association which banned the two women in 2023 for failing gender eligibility tests.

Minutes of the association show boxing officials had concerns about the two in 2022 but the initial testing did not come back in time to act on results from the 2022 world championships. But by 2023 further testing returned the same failure in eligibility tests and Lin was stripped of the world championship bronze medal and Khelif prevented from partickpating in the gold medal bout because of XY chromosomes, according to the IBA officials.

Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting is declared victorious at the end of her fight against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova. Picture: AFP

But Adams said: “The IBA disqualified them for that (result), we don’t know the protocol, if its accurate or whether to believe the tests”. He backtracked on official information originally provided on the Olympic website stating Khelif had been banned because of elevated testosterone levels.

In any case the IOC refuses to hear the safety concerns of the female boxers that they are possibly fighting against boxers with male XY chromosomes. The issue seems destined to overshadow the Olympics with both fighters progressing through the rounds and could be in medal contention with just one more victory.

On Friday the crowd inside the North Paris Arena stomped and chanted Uz-bek-i-stan. But the physically taller Taiwanese fighter was untroubled, landing some heavy blows and winning in an unanimous points decision.

Lin, 27, has been the subject of “slander and misdirected fanfare”, according to Taiwan outlets, and say she has identified as a girl since birth.

It is unclear what chromosomal differences and what if any, advantages she has. But Lin who calls herself “little strong” has boxed against boys and men all her career.

Turdibekova left the arena sobbing after her loss, but she didn’t have a broken face, unlike Italian Angela Carini, the opponent of Thursday’s bout with another “XY” boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria.

Lin refused to talk to the broadcasters or the media, and her long time coach Tseng Tzu-chiang spoke only to congratulate the Olympic officials and say “I like the Olympics” before also heading to the athletes’ lounge.

While the IOC has shown much compassion for the two boxers who are the subject of the controversy it wasn’t until that Friday IOC officials grudgingly referred to the facial injuries to Italian boxer Angela Carini which occurred 24 hours earlier.

Originally published as Boxing gender war explodes after star shares monster picture on Instagram