UFC fighter Julian Erosa challenges controversial trans swimmer Lia Thomas to become an MMA fighter… claiming that he would transition to being a woman just so he could ‘beat that dude’s a**’

UFC veteran fighter Julian Erosa threw down a bizarre challenge after winning his undercard bout on Saturday – calling out swimmer Lia Thomas and telling her to become an MMA fighter.

In a weird moment during the post-fight press conference, Erosa spoke about how he didn’t like cheaters and specifically called out Thomas while misgendering the former University of Pennsylvania swimmer.

As a part of his challenge, Erosa told Thomas to become an MMA fighter – before strangely volunteering to medically transition to being a woman himself.

Erosa said, ‘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.’

Then, just seconds after suggesting that he wanted to become a trans-woman for this challenge, Erosa went on to talk about how unfair it is for trans-women to compete in women’s sports.

Image.

‘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.’

A reporter in the audience followed up – saying that transitioning from male to female and competing in combat sports is ‘so much worse’ than making that same transition to compete in swimming.

When asked if there are any instances where he feels it would be acceptable for trans-women to compete, Erosa replied, ‘Absolutely not.’

‘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. 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.

‘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.’

Erosa improved his record to 29-11 after defeating Ricardo Ramos in the featherweight bout by submission via a guillotine choke.

Thomas has not competed in any swimming since college – after World Aquatics established a policy in 2022 which set up parameters for trans-women to compete.

That policy would only allow people who transitioned from male to female as long as male puberty was halted by age 12.

Thomas is suing World Aquatics, claiming that the policy is discriminatory.