'I don't like cheaters': UFC fighter Julian Erosa asks Lia Thomas to become a fighter so he can 'beat that dude's a**'

UFC fighter Julian Erosa called out infamous swimmer and transgender athlete Lia Thomas, encouraging the college athlete to become a mixed martial arts fighter so the two can fight.

Following a first-round submission victory at UFC Vegas 89, Erosa was asked by a reporter to clarify a "goofy call-out" that the fighter had alluded to. A "call-out" refers to when a fighter names an opponent he would like to fight in the near future, following a victory.

Erosa took the opportunity to challenge transgender athlete Thomas to become a mixed martial arts fighter:

"I was going to say that I don't like cheaters, and I don't know how you guys feel about this whole situation, but I don't like cheaters and so I wanted to callout Lia Thomas," Erosa said in a press conference.

"I wanted to encourage her to or encourage him to transition from women's swimming into women's MMA, and then I'll transition to becoming a woman and I'm going to beat that dude's ass."

Thomas, who is known for identifying as a woman and competing in women's swimming after years of male competition, was not the only transgender athlete whom Erosa named.

"The world that we're living in is just ... you know there's no common sense any more. ... I just don't agree with men in women's sports, you know? Even the whole Fallon Fox thing ... guys that are fighting in women's MMA and knocking them out. It's a bad look."

Fox is a fighter who was born a man but fought six women between 2012 and 2014, winning five fights. In his second fight, he brutally knocked out a woman in 39 seconds. In his final fight, he reportedly broke his opponent's skull.

Erosa was asked by the same reporter if there are any instances in which he believes male athletes competing against women would make sense.

"Absolutely not," the fighter immediately replied. "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 kind of sense, I mean, and the proof's in the pudding," he said regarding Thomas.

According to Essentially Sports, Thomas was ranked 65th in the country in the 500-yard freestyle as a man, only to be ranked first as a woman the following year.

He was also 554th in the men's 200-yard freestyle and fifth as a woman.

"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."

Erosa closed his statements by alluding to the fact that he believes women's sports will become obsolete if they continue to allow men to compete against them.

"It's so funny to me that that women will fight for their own spaces and then they also fight for transwomen to be in those spaces. Those are just men, there's going to be hundreds of men in these sports, and then it just becomes another man sport."

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