UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman feels that good ol' fashioned American patriotism is dwindling in mixed martial arts, and that's something that needs to change as soon as possible.
"The All-American" voiced his opinion during last week's edition of Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour (h/t MMA Fighting).
I feel like smaller countries, other countries, they cheer, they support their people no matter what. We need to get a little bit more supportive of our people ... So America is the one country that, they don't cheer for their own. They won't just stick with Americans. I feel like Americans need to get better with that ... We have a lot of great stars and so many different things, some of the other countries don't have that.
Weidman seemed particularly peeved over the fact that many American fans decided to cheer for Irish sensation Conor McGregor when he faced off with Louisiana's own Dustin Poirier at UFC 178 eight days ago.
McGregor won the bout in under two minutes via TKO.
Out of the UFC's nine current titleholders, seven are American (Ronda Rousey, Demetrious Johnson, T.J. Dillashaw, Anthony Pettis, Johny Hendricks, Weidman and Jon Jones), with Rousey and Jones arguably having the largest fanbases.
Weidman, a native of Baldwin, New York, is currently unbeaten (12-0) and has faced little opposition inside the Octagon outside of his most recent contest against Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 in July.
The 185-pound champ won the fight via unanimous decision after a hard-fought, 25-minute battle.
The Serra-Longo Fight Team standout will defend his title against Brazilian slugger Vitor Belfort in February after their UFC 181 matchup was postponed after Weidman recently broke his hand in training, per UFC president Dana White.
Does Weidman make a solid point that American fans aren't as vocal as fans of other nationalities when it comes to seeing their countrymen leave it all in the cage?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
