The fans are gearing up for some blockbuster title fights coming up soon, including the middleweight title fight between Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319. Well, we are less than a couple of months away from the pay-per-view, and hence the promotion for the big-time headliner is underway. However, the fans recently appeared a bit angry when the entity promoting the du Plessis vs Chimaev fight wasn’t the UFC.
When the UFC and WWE merged to form TKO Group Holdings, the fight community wondered if we would witness some kind of crossover between the two promotions. Dana White assured the fans that nothing would change and nobody would get into each other’s business. “There are no pre-determined outcomes in the UFC. So, there won’t really be any type of crossovers,” the UFC CEO said two years ago. But guess what? We have seen certain instances of crossover, but not in the way fans might think.
The UFC and WWE have promoted each other’s events on more than one occasion. From UFC fighters appearing on WWE’s crowd to WWE superstars appearing in Dana White’s promotion’s crowd cam at many events. And who can forget Michael Chandler calling out Conor McGregor on an episode of Monday Night Raw? This time, the WWE shared a post, promoting the Dricus du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev headliner, and tried to get fans invested with a pre-sale couple code.
.@ufc tickets on sale now with presale code: UFCWWE
: https://t.co/olvTY20ZJ1 pic.twitter.com/SNZALOQddq
— WWE (@WWE) June 19, 2025
Well, that backfired heavily as fans didn’t take too kindly to WWE’s efforts to grab some attention for the middleweight title fight. The fans were not only vocal, but their reactions were fueled with rage. Here’s what the community had to say.
Fans don’t want WWE to promote Khamzat Chimaev and Dricus du Plessis’ fight
When the fans saw WWE posting about UFC 319, one of the first reactions that appeared on that post was fans wondering if something had happened to the $9.3 billion wrestling giants’ social media handle. “Wth is happening was this paged hacked,” a fan wrote on X in that regard. Meanwhile, there were others who said, “That’s fake,” perhaps failing to comprehend UFC’s and WWE’s cross-promotional activities. However, a lot of fans were fuming after coming across the tweet from the Stamford-based promotion.
Both pro wrestling and UFC fans have somewhat cult fanbase. In terms of the former, there is even a deeper tribal culture, with fans only sticking to one promotion. It’s either AEW or WWE. But for the UFC fans, they just don’t want to see the sport get diluted and associated with wrestling, which has a pre-determined approach, and it is no longer a fact that’s unknown. On that note, a couple of fans wrote, “Why are we mixing just leave eachother alone bruh f— off,” and, “Why are they mixing fake fighting and real fighting?”
Another fan insisted, “Keep UFC and WWE separate, please,” while some fans want the WWE to delete the post about the Dricus du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev UFC 319 headliner. It was apparent with comments like, “Get this crap out of here.” Although WWE is a leader in the sports and entertainment business in their own right, UFC fans just don’t want to entertain professional wrestling, claiming, “We don’t care about fake ufc.”
Well, the difference of opinion between the UFC and WWE fans has been a longstanding one. While Brock Lesnar made a successful transition from WWE to the UFC, the same cannot be said for CM Punk, who is one of wrestling’s biggest stars. The community takes every jibe they can at Punk’s 2-fight stint, which they believe should not have happened in the first place. But what are your thoughts on the co-promotional activities? Drop your comments below.
The post $9.3B Company Faces Fan’s Wrath as Dricus Du Plessis vs Khamzat Chimaev in Works appeared first on EssentiallySports.