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At this point, it seems crystal clear that the UFC has leaned into its place in the current conservative culture war. Once a man who swiftly cracked down on fighters like Miguel Torres and Frank Mir for their public comments, Dana White has branded himself as a ‘free speech’ champion of late, green-lighting his fighters to dive into whatever trash talk they see fit to bring to UFC press conferences and social media.
He’s taken his Power Slap brand to the Rumble social media platform which actively courts conservative creators and viewers, and made a public promise to trash Peloton bikes at the UFC PI after learning that they had asked Theo Von to pull a podcast segment featuring noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr.
“We don’t do anything woke over here at all,” the UFC president told Fox News back in April of last year.
It’s a move seemingly sparked by White’s time of political favor during Donald Trump’s presidency, where he secured a chance to advise the President on national policy and gained a prime speaking position during the Republican National Convention. It’s also positioned the UFC to be a brand rehabilitator for Bud Light, after they faced a wave of conservative backlash for a brief ad campaign featuring trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Sean Strickland fans irate over UFC 297
That kind of slant has been a boon for fighters like Sean Strickland, who have ridden the seemingly never ending wave of culture war topics to carve out their own fanbase in the MMA ecosystem. In the lead up to UFC 297, Strickland took the opportunity of a reporter’s question about his past homophobia to launch into a speech about how LGBTQ allies are “the definition of weakness.”
Following Strickland’s defeat on PPV, several pundits in the MMA industry found themselves facing a wave of backlash for their support of the title fight verdict, which saw Dricus du Plessis take a split decision over the Xtreme Couture talent—winning three of five rounds on two judges scorecards. One of those facing fan ire, apparently, was none other than UFC broadcast personality Jon Anik.
In a recent episode of his Anik & Florian Podcast with former title contender Kenny Florian, the longtime play-by-play announcer talked about fan reaction to his commentary—suggesting that it was bad enough he’s considering walking away from the UFC altogether.
“…even if you and I both thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik explained. “And when I go on to X or I go on to 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? But, 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. Because, if I go do pro football I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. And, I dunno, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fanbase.
“And we can disagree. Don’t take it from me, Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought DDP won the fight. I dunno, 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.”
Anik notes Strickland judging oddity
Before all the fans got to him, Anik did have another interesting thought on UFC 297 and Sean Strickland’s experience with the judges. Notably that Sal D’Amato has been involved in each of Strickland’s last three split decisions, and has been the opposing judge to the majority verdict in every one.
Anik gives Strickland & du Plessis a pass on trash talk
As for his thoughts on Strickland’s personality and the things that both he and Du Plessis said ahead of the fight? In an interview with MMA Fighting, Anik expressed the feeling that the UFC should probably draw a line somewhere when it comes to trash talk, but more or less gave both fighters a pass.
“Obviously, they both have value on a microphone, and they do, but I guess I’m not the most sensitive guy in the world when it comes to the words. A lot of people have taken stances in terms of that line, and we should keep wives and families out of it, and I’d be lying if I said that I think there absolutely needs to be some promotional line drawn. I just don’t know that words affect me as much as actions like a Jeremy Stephens push.”
Speaking personally, I’ll say I hope Anik doesn’t walk away from the UFC. In a commentary booth that can regularly devolve into live podcast territory, petty bickering, and general blind-leading-the-blind nonsense, he’s consistently been a driver of focus, research, and consistency. A UFC product without him will be notably worse.