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A series of interactions have taken over the internet and both the MMA and pro-wrestling communities are on notice. Chiefly, ONE Championship fighter Vitor Belfort took aim at AEW Superstar Chris Jericho and was immediately met with return fire. ‘Y2J’ Jericho has never been one to back down and made sure to let Belfort know that he wasn’t playing around.

The genesis of their contentious back-and-forth comes in after ONE Championship linked up with TNT Network. AEW Promotion is also based alongside ONE under the TNT banner, and that usually means that talks of cross-promotional events are rife. However, this time the athletes themselves were involved rather than the fans being the ones to speak up.

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Vitor Belfort vs Chris Jericho: Stars collide

The former UFC fighter, Belfort, spoke out to the South China Morning Post and fired heavy artillery towards Jericho. Under the guise of a cross-promotional event, the Brazilian made it known that he wanted to scrap with the pro-wrestler. Belfort made his intentions crystal clear and certainly didn’t leave anything to the imagination.

“With myself being with ONE, and on the same network, I think it’s time for (AEW CEO) Tony Khan to give me Jericho, and I can whip Jericho’s butt. We can really make that fight happen,” Belfort said.

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“I think this is what the audience wants, we can draw a lot of audience for AEW and ONE. It’s time to cross-promote and bring these two together. ONE has a lot of top athletes, including myself, and we can make some big fights in both.”

Similar in form to Belfort, Chris Jericho has always believed in getting straight to the point as well. Taking to Twitter, the former WWE stand-out dismissed the Brazilian’s call-out in a way only he could.

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With a steady rise in cross-promotional events, truly any kind of match-up is possible on paper. However, it’s more common to see boxing and MMA crossovers, but, pro wrestlers competing in MMA aren’t unheard of. Brock Lesnar and CM Punk are two notable names who successfully made their way towards the UFC. However, they also serve as examples of how differently things can turn out.