Ashlee Evans-Smith had 'love-hate relationship' with Fallon Fox controversy

In the weeks leading up to her tournament final bout against transgender fighter Fallon Fox, Ashlee Evans-Smith found herself on the receiving end of a type of “support” she would have rather done without.

You know the kind. At least, you do if you’ve ever so much as glanced at a Twitter conversation about Fox, who become the subject of controversy when she revealed in March that she had been born a man.

“People would tweet me things like, ‘Go Ashlee, ‘F–k him up,’ or things of that nature,” Smith told MMAjunkie.com. “I didn’t appreciate that. It didn’t give me any boost to have the support of those people who were just against Fallon. It really didn’t. It felt wrong.”

That’s because, as far as Smith was concerned, Fox’s decision to transition from male to female was a private matter. If that’s how Fox wants to live, Smith said, “I respect that.” It’s just that there seemed to be plenty of fight fans who didn’t, and the resulting controversy became a double-edged sword for Smith, who defeated Fox via third-round TKO earlier this month to win the Championship Fighting Alliance women’s featherweight tournament.

“It’s this weird feeling, like this love-hate relationship with the controversy,” Smith said. “I love the fact that I’m getting this attention from the media and the fans. Otherwise, maybe it’s 25 viewers to see Ashlee Evans-Smith versus Susie Johnson or whoever. But because it was against a transgender fighter, I got to show my skills to more people. It was an awesome thing to get to showcase that, but it was also very frustrating.”

For instance, Smith said, there were the questions. There she was trying to prepare for the biggest fight of her young career, and all people seemed to want to know was how she felt about transsexuals. When other fighters, such as current “Ultimate Fighter” contestant Peggy Morgan, said they wouldn’t fight Fox, it made people question whether Smith would follow through with her plan to compete in the finals, she said. That was a question she also had to ask herself, even though the answer was easy to find in the end.

“What it came down to was, the opportunity was too big to pass up,” Smith said. “If it would have been a one-fight contract – them saying, ‘Hey, do you want to fight this transgender fighter?’ – I probably would have said no. But this was a delicate situation. I’d entered the tournament, won my first round, and I felt like if I pulled out and didn’t fight her I’d be letting her take that money and that title from me. I stayed in it not because I wanted to fight a transgender fighter, but because I felt like it was my time and my money. There was never a second where I wasn’t going to fight her.”

That’s because, for starters, the winner of the CFA tournament was promised $20,000 in prize money. That meant a lot to Smith, who had just turned pro after an extensive amateur career, and was “pinching pennies really hard” just to get by as a part-time cocktail waitress and kid’s wrestling coach in southern California.

Her financial situation got bleaker when, a couple weeks before her bout with Fox, the establishment where she worked as a waitress abruptly closed with no warning to the staff.

“I was scared because I’ve never been without a job, but then I realized it meant more time to train for my fight,” Smith said. “I wanted to win that money for a lot of reasons, but one of them was that if I didn’t win I would have had to come home and sell some ovaries or something. I didn’t know what I would have done. Now I was able to come home and pay some rent.”

Smith was also able to make some post-fight peace with Fox, who she said did her best to pull off an intimidating “mean-mugging” style before their bout. Smith nearly the ended the bout with strikes at the close of the second round, and briefly thought she’d won when the referee finally pulled her off. When told that she’d have to do it all over again, she said, she was initially despondent, “but then my coach [Adam Lynn] just told me, ‘We’re going to go win it again,’” – which is exactly what she did in the third round.

After the fight, Smith was elated, while Fox stayed on her stool for the official announcement. Later, Smith said, Fox visited her to apologize for that breach of etiquette, which gave Smith a chance to get something else off her chest.

“I told her, ‘I need you to know that this was never about hate or discrimination for me. This was business, and I wanted that money,’” Smith said. “She teared up and we hugged it out and then she left. It was a nice conclusion for me, because there was a lot of negative vibes leading into this, but that didn’t make me excited or make me feel supported at all. It wasn’t about that for me.”

Now Smith is back home in California, and she’s already landed another waitressing job, she said. She also has some money in the bank thanks to her victory, not to mention an elevated profile in the MMA world.

“My coach told me, ‘I’m glad you got this attention with this fight, because now you can see what every fight from here on out is going to be like. Every fight is going to get harder, and with more pressure,’” Smith said. “He’s right. If the UFC calls, that’s what’s going to happen, and that’s what I want. I thrive off that.”

And if the UFC does call, offering Smith – whose only two pro fights so far have been at 145 pounds – a spot in its lone women’s division as a 135-pounder?

“I can make 135 pounds,” she said. “No problem.”

For more on CFA 12, check out the MMA Events section of the site.