UFC commentator Jon Anik is done with toxic MMA fans.
After the last UFC event, Anik says he recieved a ton of hateful messages after giving his opinion on the Dricus Du Plessis–Sean Strickland fight.
The backlash he received from fans over his opinion made him question whether or not he wants to stay in the MMA space.
“I am growing tired of this MMA space a little bit, and just the morass of negativity when there is a close fight, because even if you and I both thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik said. “When I go on to X, or when I go to our YouTube comments, it seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode. I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not, but I appreciate the passion, but I’m getting to a point where at 45 years of age where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space, because if I go do pro football, like, I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time.
“I don’t know, I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fan base. We can disagree, don’t take it from me, Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought ‘DDP’ won the fight. I’ve just been very off put with the negativity that has permeated my feed since Saturday night, and I’m just not sure how much longer I have in this space, honestly.”
Yall better not make Jon Anik retire man 😡 https://t.co/0qNQAavBjC
— Ben Davis (@BenTheBaneDavis) January 25, 2024
Anik says he was frustrated with the response he got from fans on Twitter.
“I’m trying to be accessible, especially after a fight like this, I want to be able to engage, but when I see the venom that some people are coming at us with, it just makes me disengage. So I guess maybe my thesis statement should be if you see me disengage and not be as omnipresent and as accessible on X, it’s because the fan base is starting to turn me off. [ESPN reporter] Marc Raimondi had a very thoughtful post about this on Instagram, this sport is getting worse by the minute in terms of all the negativity in the air.”
Anik has been with the UFC since 2011 and assumed the main role as lead commentator on UFC PPV’s in 2017.
