The UFC 321 prelims kicked off with full steam but ran out of it just as quickly. The first two fights of the night delivered some really solid action. However, when the heavyweight bout between Hamdy Abdelwahab and Chris Barnett concluded, fans were left exasperated by what they saw.

The third fight of the Abu Dhabi card started at a decent pace, with Chris Barnett landing some body kicks early. But Hamdy Abdelwahab quickly secured a big takedown and began ground-and-pounding his opponent. In the heat of the exchange, the Egyptian fighter landed several shots to the back of the head, which caught referee Marc Goddard’s attention. The fight was stopped briefly, and Abdelwahab was deducted a point for the illegal strikes.

After the fight resumed, the pace dropped drastically as both fighters started looking noticeably tired. During one of the grappling exchanges, Barnett’s shorts even came off, adding to the chaos. From there, Abdelwahab went on to win the fight in a very lackluster fashion, which left the UFC world completely disappointed, and they straight up demanded cutting the fighters from the promotion. 

Fans wasted no time expressing their frustration, with many calling out both fighters and even going as far as labeling it one of the worst showdowns in UFC history. From fair criticism to downright brutal takes, the online reaction was unforgiving. So, let’s take a look at what the fans had to say about the first heavyweight bout of the UFC 321 prelims.

UFC World reacts to disappointing UFC 321 prelims heavyweight showdown 

At first, former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling wasn’t much impressed with the showdown, as he wrote, “Just want this fight to be over already.” Here, ‘Funkmaster’ seemed totally disappointed with the pace of the heavyweight fight, just like the rest of the fans. Then, a fan was even more upset than the ex-champ, who straight up called this the worst in UFC history, “That was up there with the worst fights of all time.”

As the backlash continued, another user took a shot at Chris Barnett for putting on the worst performance of his life, writing, “Chris Barnett is having maybe the worst performance I’ve ever seen.” Well, ‘Beastboy’s UFC career has definitely been very lackluster, as he has lost two fights in a row and also had four canceled fights in a row, so there’s a valid reason why this fan actually called his fighting approach out. With that same intent, another fan wrote, “Chris Barnett should be cut, not even close to a professional by any measure #UFC321.”

Although Barnett was indeed receiving most of the criticism for his performance, but the fans didn’t have much positive to say about the winner, Hamdi Abdulwahab, either. Another fan wrote, “Hamdy Abdelwahab is DOG S–t! CUT HIM AND CHRIS BARNETT! #UFC321.” After that, another shot came at ‘Beastboy’s way as a user commented, “Yeah, Chris Barnett makes every fight terrible because as soon as he’s in danger, he makes you try and hit him in the back of the head for an easy way out.” This pointed out how Barnett actually stayed out of the action for most of the fight.

Still, not all the reactions were as harsh as one fan found Barnett’s shorts getting abruptly pulled down hilarious and meme-worthy, writing, “This is the biggest meme fight of all time, the shorts of Chris Barnett were falling off ffs.” Many found this moment hilarious, but that couldn’t possibly overshadow the swarm of backlash coming the fighter’s way.