UFC commentator Jon Anik says promotion’s fight cards are ‘way too long’

Anik, the voice of the UFC, thinks fight cards would benefit from being much shorter

UFC commentator Jon Anik has said he feels that the promotion’s fight cards are “way too long”, as the company enters a new broadcast era.

Saturday will see the UFC stream live on Paramount+ for the first time ever, following the mixed martial arts giant’s split from ESPN at the end of 2025.

And while some fans are interested to see if the UFC product changes going forward, Anik does not expect to see a reduction of the runtime of events – to his disappointment, it would seem.

“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 told Spinnin’ Backfist.

“Even if you want to make this broadcast five or six hours instead of eight, I’d be OK with it, but we ask a lot of our fans. [It’s] eight hours [on] 41 Saturdays.

“So if I could effect 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 [fighters], you’ve got 50 fighters signed on [Dana White’s] Contender Series every year, which I think is less than ideal...

“But if I could effect 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 [in terms of runtime] every time we crack a mic, I would cut 150 fighters off the roster. I would do 10 fights a card and just make it a much more ingestible, palatable sporting event.”

UFC commentator Jon Anik (Getty Images For Paramount Pictures)

“My job is intensive,” Anik continued, “and I think sometimes I have leaned more into the fun as I’ve gotten older and gratitude and all those things, but I think it’s so daunting. If it was five hours instead of eight, I’d be more in the fun business.

“I’m also excited to see what this Paramount+ deal is going to hold. I’d imagine structurally most of the show is going to stay the same, but when I took over for Goldie [Mike Goldberg] in 2017 or whenever it was, and I saw how much stuff was put on tape, I said: ‘Can we do that live?’ Like the locker-room stuff.

“I still have to put the billboards on tape, like ‘UFC 324 is brought to you by…’, but if it was up to me... I know they’re trying to save my voice at times, but there were times in the past when you’d see two fighters in the locker room, they would lay that to tape beforehand. I’m like: ‘What if he’s picking his nose?’ I want to do this all live as much as possible.”

The UFC’s Paramount+ debut comes in the form of UFC 324, headlined by Paddy Pimblett vs Justin Gaethje – an interim lightweight title fight.

Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett will fight for UFC gold for the first time on Saturday (Getty Images)

The co-main event was due to see Kayla Harrison defend her bantamweight belt against legend and ex-teammate Amanda Nunes, with the latter emerging from retirement for the bout. However, Harrison is out with an injury, and Sean O’Malley vs Song Yadong has been bumped up the card to serve as the new co-main event.

One week after UFC 324, another numbered event follows in a rapid turnaround, as UFC 325 plays out in Sydney, Australia. The main event pits home fighter Alexander Volkanovski against Diego Lopes for the second time in nine months.

Volkanovski became a two-time featherweight champion by outpointing Lopes to claim the vacant belt last April, and now the Aussie puts the gold on the line against the Brazilian.