UFC CEO Dana White gave his thoughts on Jon Anik and his recent comments about MMA fans.
Following UFC 297 which saw Dricus Du Plessis beat Sean Strickland by split decision to become the new champ, Anik says he was tired of the toxicity of MMA fans after he thought Du Plessis won. He says the hate got so bad he thought about stepping away from his role as a UFC commentator.
“I am growing tired of this MMA space a little bit, and just the morass of negativity when there is a close fight,” Anik said on his podcast with Kenny Florian “Because even if you and I both thought Dricus Du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully. And when I go onto X or I go to our YouTube comments, it seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode. And I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not.
I appreciate the passion, but I’m getting to a point at 45 years of age where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space,” Anik continued. “If I go do pro football, I’m not necessarily gonna be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. I don’t know, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fan base,” Anik added.
Now, following Jon Anik’s comments, UFC CEO Dana White was asked about it and gave his thoughts on it. The UFC boss believes Anik needs to not pay attention to what the trolls have to say, and instead, just focus on himself.
“You know, Jon Anik had sort of a meltdown a couple of weeks ago about the fans,” White told Las Vegas Review-Journal (h/t MMAMania). “I love this stuff though. I love it, you know. I play this little game … with the media, too. I love it, man. I don’t know, I love this stuff, I love getting up every day and battling. I love the problem, like UFC 300, we’re trying to get this thing done. It’s almost like I thrive in chaos and if there isn’t chaos, I’ll create it. It’s like the Sphere. Why am I doing this? I can just put on an event at you know, any other [venue].”
The good news is that Jon Anik walked back the comments, and perhaps he will take Dana White’s advice and not pay attention to the internet comments.
