An eccentric male MMA fighter wants to become the UFC's first 'intergender' champion by challenging a woman to a bout

YouTube / BT Sport / ESPN MMA

Henry Cejudo and Valentina Shevchenko.

• Henry Cejudo, a UFC fighter, says he wants to fight a woman in the Octagon.
• The woman he has challenged to a bout is the dominant featherweight fighter Valentina Shevchenko.
• She responded to his call out by saying: "Be careful what you wish for."
• The UFC boss Dana White is unimpressed by the exchange, calling Cejudo's behavior the "whackiest s---" he's ever heard.
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UFC fighter Henry Cejudo says he wants to be the company's first "intergender" champion, but prominent women's competitor Valentina Shevchenko has told him to be careful what he wishes for.

Even in the weird world of combat sports, this back-and-forth is bizarre.

It all started on Sunday, when Cejudo - a world champion at bantamweight and flyweight - posted a video on Twitter saying people had been telling him that Shevchenko, who rules the women's flyweight division, is the most dominant fighter in the UFC, not him.

As a result, he got "jelly" (jealous), and challenged her to a fight.

"Valentina Shevchenko, I have a message for you," he said in the video. "I am looking to become the first ever intergender champion that this world has ever seen. I'm calling you out. You can be the next to bend the knee."

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Shevchenko told Ariel Helwani's MMA Show on ESPN that she saw Cejudo's video. She responding by saying: "Be careful what you wish for."

She then amped up their social media feud by posting a photograph on Twitter on Tuesday in which she posed in lipstick, workout gear, and a rifle, alongside the caption: "Looking for Henry Cejudo."

It was not long before Cejudo replied, posting a photograph of himself with his two UFC belts, a crown, and gold jewelry. "World's most wanted man," his caption said. "Valentina's after me."

The lines between what is real and fake when it comes to MMA promotion are increasingly blurred, but one man who appears lost for words is the UFC boss Dana White.

"That's the whackiest s--- I've ever heard," White told MMA Junkie. "That's just f------ crazy. I don't even know how to respond to that, or what to say, other than, 'Wow.'"