BY RODOLFO ROMAN, The Roman Show

The first transgender fighter in mixed martial arts Fallon Fox (3-0) will be in action against Ashlee Evans-Smith for $20,000 and the inaugural Championship Fighting Alliance’s women’s featherweight title plus three other titles will be up for grabs at CFA 12 on Saturday, Oct. 12 at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables.

The Miami based mma promotion will be hosting its fifth event of the year with the main event between CFA flyweight champion Josh Sampo vs newcomer Sam Thao and the co-main event UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter winner Efrain Escudero vs Bellator veteran and Miami favorite Luis Palomino. The show will be televised on AXS TV. Door open at 6 p.m.

“These are two veterans that will deliver a knockout performance,” he said. “Palomino is coming off a victory, while Escudero has back-to-back wins. The winner of this fight can really make a major statement in the sport, so a lot is on the line for both of these athletes.”

Meanwhile, Fox and Evans-Smith will trade hands inside the cage in the promotion’s all women tournament. Evans-Smith defeated Tori Adams in the opening round and received a bye in the second round, while Fox defeated her first opponent via knockout and the second foe by way of submission. Fox, a post-operative transsexual female, was met with controversy when she disclosed she was transgender earlier this year. Since then she has moved forward and has put it in the past.

“We are beyond that now,” she said. “We are moving past it.”

However, Evans-Smith says she thinks highly of her training and fight game.

“Both of us are going to pick each others game apart and both of us are going to train appropriately,” she said in an interview. “But when it comes down to it, I talked to a bunch of people including my coaches and I am not going to say her stand up game is better than mine or mine is better than hers. I am just going to say that when we step in the cage everyone will see who is the better striker, the better grappler. I am completely confident that I am better in every aspect.”

On the other hand, Fox says Evans-Smith doesn’t impress her.

“I am not too impressed with her ground game actually, from what I have seen,” she said in an interview on The Roman Show. “She has some decent takedowns. I haven’t seen jiu jitsu out of her. I don’t know what she is talking about in that regards.”