Jon Anik

Jon Anik
Born July 3, 1978

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

Biography

Early life

Anik was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an identical twin. He graduated from The Rivers School in Weston, Massachusetts in 1997 and enrolled at Gettysburg College, where 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.[1] He is the lead play-by-play announcer for all 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.[2]

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.[3]

As of april of 2015, Anik and fellow UFC-commentator Kenny Florian started the Anik-Florian podcast. On the podcast mixed martial arts, sports and pop culture are discussed.[4]

References

  1. ↑ UFC on FX: Guillard vs. Miller
  2. ↑ Luke Thomas (Sep 22, 2014). "Jon Anik signs extension with UFC". mmafighting.com.
  3. ↑ http://mmajunkie.com/news/25018/espns-jon-anik-discusses-warrior-film-role-ufc-espn-relationship.mma
  4. ↑ https://soundcloud.com/anikandflorian

External links

African American descent