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UFC fighters often have bones to pick with fellow competitors and love to make names for themselves by calling people out.
But veteran pugilist Julian Erosa made one of the most bizarre callouts ever at his post-fight news conference — former transgender NCAA swimmer Lia Thomas.
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And he didn’t stop at simply challenging Thomas to become an MMA fighter. Erosa said that he would transition to female himself to make the fight happen.
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“I wanted to encourage her, or encourage him, to transition from women’s swimming into women’s MMA — and then I’ll transition to become a woman, and I’m going to beat that dude’s ass,” Erosa said, intentionally misgendering Thomas.
Then, as if his rant hadn’t been off-kilter enough, Erosa — who literally had just volunteered to become a trans woman as part of his challenge — railed against the unfair nature of trans women competing in women’s sports.
“That’s what I wanted to say because it’s all about getting a little bit of shock value,” Erosa said. “But I mean, the world that we’re living in, there’s no common sense anymore. It’s becoming a bit ridiculous.
“Obviously, that’s one of the big things that’s always been … It’s going on now. I just don’t agree with men in women’s sports … and the girls that are — or guys that are fighting in women’s MMA and knocking them out, it’s a bad look.”
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In a follow-up question from a reporter in attendance, Erosa was asked if he felt there are any sports or circumstances in which it would be acceptable for a trans woman to compete among born-female athletes.
“Absolutely not,” Erosa began. “I just fully believe if you went through male puberty, there’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing you can give yourself to shrink your bones down.
“There’s nothing you can do in that sense. The proof’s in the pudding, right? You have Mr. Thomas, who was whatever he was ranked as a man, and he’s just beating all the women. It’s obvious.
“It doesn’t matter how much estrogen you’re taking. I think we’re in, obviously, a gray area, but these gray areas are stupid to me because it’s common sense.
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“I’m not the smartest crayon in the box, but I could tell you, if I don’t know anything about anything, I could still tell you that’s unfair, in my opinion.
I’m not the smartest crayon in the box, but I could tell you, if I don’t know anything about anything, I could still tell you that’s unfair, in my opinion.
Julian Erosa
“People are going to have their opinions to say what they want, but it’s just something I strongly believe in, that it’s so funny to me that women will fight for their own spaces, and then they also fight for trans women to be in those spaces.
“Those are just men. When is it going to be where there’s going to be hundreds of men in these sports, and then it just becomes another man’s sport?
“It’s so weird to me. I don’t know. We could dive into that can of worms all day. But yeah, that’s how I feel about it.”
During his fight on Saturday, Erosa defeated Ricardo Ramos in their featherweight bout by submissionto improve his record 7-7 in UFC and 29-11 overall.
As for Thomas, she has not competed in any swimming events since college and currently is suing World Aquatics, claiming that the governing body’s policy is for trans women to compete is discriminatory.
That policy would only allow people who transitioned from male to female in competitions if male puberty was halted by age 12.
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