Transgender MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin had plenty of people applauding when she pulled off a stunning win—in just three and a half minutes—during her debut match in Miami this weekend.
Former MMA champion Jake Shields was not among them, who launched an all-out transphobic attack against McLaughlin, mocking and migendering her on Twitter.
But much like her championship fight a few days earlier, McLaughlin got the last laugh, with a perfect Twitter clapback that has left even more people cheering her on.
Seemingly refusing to dignify Shields by taking his bait, McLaughlin simply turned the mockery back around on him with her response:
"Lol Jake has a crush"
"Sorry sweetie, you started off on the wrong foot."
Perfect.
McLaughlin's win at the Combate Global preliminaries in Miami was definitely a stunner: In just three and half minutes she vanquished her opponent, French fighter Celine Provost, with a move called a rear-naked choke.
As much of the coverage of her match specified, McLaughlin's participation came after she submitted to a battery of tests required under the state of Florida's new draconian law focused on excluding trans athletes from sports by invading their medical privacy. McLaughlin passed those tests, including the ones focused on her hormone levels.
But that clearly didn't satisfy Shields.
From practically the moment McLaughlin's win was announced, he began a sustained—and typo-ridden—mockery and misgendering campaign against her.
Shields posted so many tweets about McLaughlin it began to seem like something of an obsession.
Especially after MMA's first trans fighter, Fallon Fox, tweeted her congratulations to McLaughlin.
But as much as he was dishing out the mockery, he didn't seem able to take it in return—the resulting tidal wave of criticism really seemed to get to him.
Bigotry aside, it's hard not to criticize a point so poorly made as Shields'.
Aside from the fact McLaughling passed all of the medical tests mandated by transphobic legislation in order to appease transphobes like Shields—which Shields of course made no mention of—he didn't really do himself any favors in the way he laid out his attack.
As several pointed out, if he was trying to prove McLaughlin is still a man, well... the photo evidence he presented says otherwise.
In any case, McLaughlin got the last word.
If a reply to her tweet dragging Shields is any indication, you might say she has him pegged.
"...I know the type. Talk sh*t about you in public, hide you from his friends, keep his hood up and shades on at the bar, then ask you to peg him when nobody is around"
On Twitter, many people took McLaughlin's side and put Shields firmly in place.
Shields has since stopped obsessing over trans women and gone back to his regular Twitter focus of anti-vaccine pandemic denial.
