Famous UFC commentator Jon Anik made a clarification of his controversial comments about ‘custody battle’.
Jon Anik is a familiar face in the UFC commentary team aside from Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier. The 44-year-old has been commentating UFC matches since 2011 and became UFC play-by-play commentator. Anik also often replaced Dana White during press conferences for major events when the UFC president was unable to attend.
In 2021, Jon Anik faced backlash after bringing up a personal issues of athletes who are competing in the octagon. Andre Ewell and Chris Gutierrez were involved in custody battles for their children at the time. They competed at catchweight and Anik brought up custody issues. Gutierrez would later won the match via unanimous decision.
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“Both of these fighters have dealt with custody battles involving their children…” Anik said.
Soon after that, many UFC fans criticized Anik. They believe those things were inappropriate to be mentioned during the live match. Gutierrez also criticized Anik for bringing up his personal issue, while Ewell was quite happy that Anik let everyone know why they agreed to exchange blows with each other.
During a recent talk in the Thiccc Boy podcast, Anik explained the thought process when he uttered those words. He still firmly believes he did not do the wrong thing but admitted he should use better words.
“I’m sort off trying in the middle of a round to explain that this is why these guys fight. They are both heavy hearted right? ”
“And not a day of my life goes by where some UFC fan doesn’t reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram and says something about the ‘custody battle’. My intentions were clear and they were good, the phraseology wasn’t good… I felt a little bit vindicated.” Anik said.
Jon Anik explains the infamous "custody battle" moment from a couple years back. (via Food Truck Diaries)#ufc #mma pic.twitter.com/ToHFKnYgRn
— Prestige Combat (@prestigecombat) January 20, 2023