Jon Anik has shared several ideas on how he would improve the current UFC broadcast format.
Anik, who made his UFC commentary debut in 2012, has spent much of the past decade calling the promotion’s biggest events. He was elevated to lead play-by-play commentator in 2017 and has since become a regular presence on UFC broadcasts. With that level of experience, few are better positioned to provide insight into the inner workings of a typical fight night and the pressures that come with it.
"I think our biggest challenge is the fact that our events are way too long, and we should have 10 or 11 fights instead of 15," Anik said on </iframe>" target="_blank">Spinning Backfist MMA Show. "Even if you want to make this broadcast five or six hours (and Hunter (Campbell), I love you!)…even if you wanted to make this five or six hours instead of eight, I'd be okay with it. But we ask a lot of our fans, even fans as rabid as yourselves, eight hours times 41 Saturdays, right?"
Whether it’s a numbered event at T-Mobile Arena, a Fight Night at the Apex or a journey down under, more often than not the UFC crew are working hard each weekend to deliver more and more fights.
If Anik had his way however, he would downsize the roster and streamline the entire product.
"If I could affect change in one way, it would be to – and we have a lot of masters to serve, right? Television partners in different countries, a lot of different things, a roster north of 600, getting 50 fighters signed on the Contender Series every year, which I think is less than ideal – but if I could affect change in one way, and perhaps it's selfish because I'm a broadcaster that doesn't understand how we do back-to-back Super Bowls every time we crack a mic, I would cut 150 fighters off the roster," Anik said. "I would do 10 fights a card and just make it a much more ingestible, palatable sporting event."
