Former UFC welterweight Jake Shields has caused a stir on Twitter after posting a series of controversial tweets directed towards the transgender community.
Shields, who is now a prominent Twitter celebrity, made a statement accusing the transgender community of trying to get him fired from his job.
In response to this, “the pronoun people are sending emails trying to get me fired”, Shields wrote.
Shields is no stranger to controversy when it comes to his social media account. He has often posted tweets against the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.
Recently, he uploaded tweets challenging the 10 toughest trans men in the world to a clash, with no training camp and no rest between each bout.
Shields then added Mike Jackson to the list. Jackson was famously only signed by the UFC once they were in pursuit of someone who could match CM Punk. He proceeded to lose all his UFC outings bar one – a win via DQ.
Shields claimed that transgender athletes were scared to go up against him in a clash, but his tweets drew outrage from many on the internet.
Shields’ tweets sparked an outrage on social media, with many calling his comments transphobic and offensive. Several transgender athletes responded to Shields’ challenge, with Mack Beggs accepting the challenge and Alana McLaughlin listing the conditions that Shields would need to fulfill in order for her to accept the offer.
During his stint in the UFC, Shields competed in eight bouts but only scored victories in four of them.
His last UFC outing took place in March 2014, and he went on to compete in other MMA promotions like WSOF and PFL. Despite his lackluster performance in the UFC, Shields remains a popular figure in the MMA world.