A growing number of toxic MMA fans on social media has UFC commentator Jon Anik questioning how much longer he has before walking away from the sport altogether.
The promotion’s return to Toronto delivered a mixed bag with a handful of entertaining finishes on the prelims followed by a lackluster main card that left fight fans unsatisfied, argumentative, or in many cases, both. In the main event of the evening, Sean Strickland surrendered his middleweight world title to South African standout Dricus Du Plessis following an entertaining back-and-forth battle over the course of five rounds.
In the end, Strickland came up short on the scorecards, losing a razor-close split decision and thus, his gold. Fans have been engaged in a heated debate over who they believe should have left The Great White North with the 185-pound crown ever since.
Anik landed on the side of Dricus Du Plessis while others, like UFC CEO Dana White, had Strickland winning the fight on their scorecards.
Anik’s opinion on the matter has resulted in him being inundated with vile comments from keyboard warriors on multiple platforms. So much so that during a recent episode of The Anik & Florian Podcast, he suggested that all the vitriol may be what pushes him into walking away from his UFC commentary duties.
“Even if you and I thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik explained. “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 expresses his frustration and even hints retirement from UFC commentary amid fan reaction to him thinking that Dricus Du Plessis rightfully won at UFC 297.
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| Jon Anik expresses his frustration and even hints retirement from UFC commentary amid fan reaction to him thinking that Dricus Du Plessis rightfully won at UFC 297. 
“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” (h/t MMA News).