Mack Beggs vs. Jake Shields feud: Who is Mack Beggs? Here's all about the transgender athlete's beef with Jake Shields

Who is Mack Beggs? Here's all about the transgender athlete's beef with Jake Shields

Modified May 08, 2023 10:58 GMT

Mack Boggs (left) and Jake Shields (right). [Images courtesy: left images from Twitter @UselessInTophat and @TerryHutch1 and right image from Twitter @Pat77432407] — Mack Beggs (left) and Jake Shields (right). [Images courtesy: left images from Twitter @UselessInTophat and @TerryHutch1 and right image from Twitter @Pat77432407]

American former high school wrestler Mack Beggs has recently been in the news for going up against former UFC welterweight challenger Jake Shields and his views on transgender athletes.

Beggs is a transgender man from Euless, Texas, who wrestled in high school. Due to the state of Texas's athletic rules, he was forced to compete in the girls' league due to it being the gender he was assigned at birth. He won the state championship in the 110 pound-category in two consecutive years, 2017 and 2018, beating Chelsea Sanchez in the final on both occasions.

Jake Shields took to Twitter to back his views on transgender athletes by challenging 10 trans men to a fight and offered to take them all on, one after the other, without resting in between and with no prior training camp:

"Since trans men are real men I would like to challenge the 10 toughest trans men in the world to a fight I fight them with no training camp and no rest between each fight"

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Mack Beggs stepped up to call Shields out on his challenge and posted a story on his Instagram account.

"We just going to make this an official call out, but Jake Shields I will take you up on your offer. But the offer isn’t going to be 10 versus one... You’re going to do a one-on-one type match. You’re going to do it right. If you’re going to call yourself a fighter do it f***ing right. Like, that’s just f***ing disrespectful. It’s disrespectful to the sport of MMA for you to just be like ‘oh yeah let me just call out 10 trans men and I’ll f***ing whoop them. I’m specifically going to f*** you up Jake Shields."

Check out a screenshot of Begg's Instagram story below:

Beggs' response to Jake Shields. [via Instagram @mack.beggs]

Mack Beggs vs. Jake Shields feud: Shields responds to trans athlete accepting his challenge

Jake Shields initially mistook another trans athlete for Mack Beggs before rounding back to the right person. He responded to an online publication on Beggs, accepting his challenge by laughing it off: