“You have Boxed with a Man, Right?”

Algerian Khelif (L) is pronounced winner against female boxer Luca Hámori (R)

A video has emerged in which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán seems to suggest that female Olympic boxer Luca Anna Hámori had fought a male boxer during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

Doing his now customary rounds during International Women’s Day on March 9, where he traditionally hands out flowers of small presents to female colleagues or personalities, he visited the gym where top Hungarian female boxer Luca Hámori is training. The meeting was filmed, then later posted on Instagram.

The Prime Minister had also brought a present with him, a boxing glove signed by U.S. champion Evander Holyfield. Apart from the boxer’s signature, there was also a Biblical reference written on the glove from Philippians 4.13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Moving quickly on from the serious part, Viktor Orbán then remarked with a hint of humor that

Holyfield was a great boxer, but Holyfield has never boxed with a woman – you have boxed with a man, have not you?”

He then added that “you may have done a bigger thing than him, right?”

On August 3, 2024, Luca Hámori fought Imane Khelif of Algeria during the women’s 66kg boxing quarter-final at the at the Arena de Paris Nord. After the controversial match, Luca Hámori finished in fifth place losing to Khelif on unanimous points.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) informed in February this year that it is to take legal action against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the inclusion of Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting at last year’s Olympic Games. The two boxers had been excluded from the IBA’s 2023 world championships after failing gender eligibility tests. Nevertheless, the IOC allowed them to fight in Paris.

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