Jon Anik is ready to throw in the towel on his UFC commentary career after being inundated with vile comments from MMA fans online following Saturday’s event in Toronto.
Anik, alongside Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz, was on hand in The Great White North to call the action at UFC 297, including the highly anticipated headliner featuring Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis. After five rounds of entertaining action, DDP was announced as the winner via a razor-close split decision.
As is the case with most split decisions, fighters and fans alike were divided as to who they believed should have left Canada with the middleweight crown. Anik sided with two of the three judges, suggesting that Du Plessis had earned his first UFC title while many, including UFC CEO Dana White, believe Strickland did enough to retain the belt.
Anik’s support of DDP has resulted in him being flooded with nasty comments from keyboard warriors posing as MMA fans on multiple social media platforms. So much so that he is considering early retirement in response to all the vitriol.
“Even if you and I thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik said during a recent episode of The Anik & Florian Podcast. “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, right?
“I appreciate the passion, but I’m getting to a point where I’m 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 gonna be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time, and I don’t know man, I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fanbase.”
Jon Anik Vents His Frustration Over the Increasingly Aggressive MMA Fanbase
“We can disagree,” Anik continued. “Don’t take it from me. Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought DDP won the fight. I don’t know. I’ve just been very off-put with the negativity that has permeated my feed since Saturday and I’m just not sure how much longer I have in this space honestly.”
Verdict MMA, a global platform for real-time judging, had Sean Strickland narrowly coming out on top with members of the media pretty much split down the middle. Despite all the debate and a potential fight-changing headbutt, Dana White does not seem keen on booking an immediate rematch.
Instead, Du Plessis is expected to move on and defend his middleweight title against former two-time champ Israel Adesanya later this year.
You can watch the full podcast episode below:
