Former MMA Champ Jake Shields Issues Challenge to the “10 Toughest Trans Men” in the World,” One Trans Fighter Agrees to Fight

When thinking back on the mistakes she’s made in her life, Mack Beggs is likely to lament the day she decided to fight Jake Shields.

On Thursday, former MMA champion Jake Shields issued a challenge in which he offered to fight the top 10 toughest trans women in the world without a training camp, and without a break between fights.

For those of you confused (don’t worry, we’re all confused) a transgender man is a female who identifies as a man.

Shields wasn’t done provoking the trans crowd, however.

“Alphabet people?” Dang. Well, it appears as though one trans fighter is willing to step up and accept the challenge. Former Texas state wrestling champion Mack Beggs, a female wrestler who identifies as a man, took to Instagram and accepted Shields’ challenge.

Beggs took it up a notch by posting a video in which she called it “disrespectful” for Shields to be challenging ten trans men as opposed to doing a 1 v 1.

“We still here, bro,” Beggs said. “We’re still here and we’ve always been here. It’s the fact that you all are so hyper fixated and have some fetish with trans women that you even forget that we are out here.”

Beggs put an exclamation point on her video.

“I’m specifically going to f*ck you up Jake Shields personally,” she asserted.

Beggs may view Shields’ challenge as “disrespectful.” Though, it’s certainly not unprecedented. George Foreman fought and knocked out 5 men in one night in 1975 as he was rebuilding himself following his loss to Muhammad Ali.

Of course, Beggs is 24, and may not be aware of that.

Shields is a former Elite XC, Shooto, and Strikeforce champion. A California native, Shields is 44 years old and hasn’t fought in a cage or ring in two years. But, he is friends with Nate Diaz, which means he’s probably been in more fights outside the cage over the last two years than any active fighters in the cage.

The point of Shields’ tweet was to illustrate the absurdity of women fighting men. A point Shields made when talking to another Twitter user.

When Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs clashed on the tennis court they called it the “Battle of the Sexes.” I must confess, I’m not sure what to call this one. Shields did acknowledge Beggs’ acceptance of the challenge and details are reportedly being hammered out.

Stay tuned.