Jon Anik

Jon Anik (born July 3, 1978) is an American mixed martial arts commentator who currently works for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is also a former ESPN anchor and host of ESPN.com's MMA Live.

Jon Anik
Anik in 2000
Born (1978-07-03) July 3, 1978
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
NationalityAmerican
EducationGettysburg College
OccupationMMA commentator

Early life and education

Anik was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is Jewish.[1] He has an identical twin brother and two other siblings.[2] He graduated from The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts. In 1997 and enrolled at Gettysburg College, where he was a member of Theta Chi. He graduated with a degree in political journalism. Anik spent one semester at American University in Washington, D.C., working as an intern for the George Michael Sports Machine. He has also interned in the sports department of The MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass.

ESPN

Anik is a former ESPN anchor and the host of MMA Live on ESPN2. He has anchored several live events for ESPN, including MMA Live’s coverage of UFC 91, UFC 94, UFC 98, UFC 100, UFC 101, UFC 113, UFC 114 and UFC 126. From 2006 to 2008, Anik worked for ESPN Radio, where he anchored SportsCenter updates and served as a fill-in host on Game Night. He also did a weekly MMA chat every Wednesday for ESPN.com.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

In 2011 Dana White announced during a press conference that Jon Anik would be joining the UFC. Anik made his commentary debut during the international broadcast of UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller.[3] He was the lead play-by-play announcer for some FX and FUEL TV fights with color commentator and former UFC fighter Kenny Florian. He is also the host of the UFC's flagship sports magazine show UFC Ultimate Insider. He filled in for Mike Goldberg to team with Joe Rogan at UFC 155. On September 22, 2014, Anik was a guest on Ariel Helwani's MMA Hour and announced that he had signed a new, longer-term contract with UFC.[4] After losing a bet related to the outcome of the Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor fight at UFC 196, Anik was obliged to have a tattoo of the number 209, representing the area code of Diaz's hometown Stockton, California.[5] Since Mike Goldberg's departure in 2017, Anik has assumed the role of the UFC's main play-by-play commentator for all pay-per-view events.

On October 22, 2018, Anik revealed that he had signed a four-year contract extension with the UFC.[6]

Other appearances

Anik has made several radio and TV appearances, including ESPN programs SportsNation, The Scott Van Pelt Show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and The Doug Gottlieb Show. Other appearances include: ESPN Radio 1100 in Las Vegas, ProMMA Radio, MMAjunkie Radio, MMA Weekly Radio, The MMA Hour, the Sherdog Radio Network, and also featured on the ESPN UFC podcast every week with his "Anik-dotes"

Anik was the play-by-play voice for Season 1 of Bellator Fighting Championships. Anik co-starred in the MMA feature film Warrior as he states "I was pleasantly surprised when I got the script that I had six wardrobe changes," Anik told MMAjunkie.com Radio. "I guess I was surprised I had that many lines. I don't know how many made the final cut, though.[7]

As of April 2015, Anik and former UFC commentator Kenny Florian started the Anik-Florian podcast. On the podcast mixed martial arts, sports and pop culture are discussed.[8]

Personal life

Anik is married to Chrissy Anik and has two daughters, Riley and Tatum and a son, Hunter.

References
  1. "Most people have no idea I'm even Jewish". Twitter.
  2. Jon Anik [@Jon_Anik] (April 10, 2020). "It's National Siblings Day, I heard. I'm 1 of 4 (love you, tracyrbarry!) but this right here is the guy who I share the most DNA with, my identical twin bro. Kid lives 2.6 miles away and man do I miss playing hoops… instagram.com/p/B-zgtFrhX_X/" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller
  4. Luke Thomas (Sep 22, 2014). "Jon Anik signs extension with UFC". mmafighting.com.
  5. http://mmajunkie.com/2016/03/a-man-of-his-word-ufc-commentator-jon-anik-gets-209-tattoo
  6. John Morgan (October 22, 2018). "UFC commentator Jon Anik inks four-year contract extension with promotion". mmajunkie.com.
  7. http://mmajunkie.com/news/25018/espns-jon-anik-discusses-warrior-film-role-ufc-espn-relationship.mma
  8. "Anik and Florian". SoundCloud. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
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