In Search Of Excellence - Jon Anik: The Greatest Knockout in UFC History & His Journey in the UFC | E125
Episode Date: August 20, 2024Jon Anik is a renowned play-by-play commentator for the UFC, celebrated for his articulate and energetic commentary style that has defined the voice of modern mixed martial arts. Over the last 13 year...s, Anik has risen to the pinnacle of sports broadcasting, hailed by peers like Joe Rogan as the best in the field. His journey began in the Boston area where he cultivated his love for sports, influenced significantly by family and early experiences at sports events. Anik’s professional path was not straightforward; he transitioned from hopeful journalism ambitions to becoming a leading figure in sports media, driven by a deep passion for MMA that developed over time. His breakthrough came when he joined UFC, leaving a stable position at ESPN to pursue more dynamic and challenging opportunities in sports commentary. Today, Jon Anik not only calls the most thrilling fights in the UFC but also hosts the popular Anik & Florian podcast, sharing his insights and extending his influence beyond the octagon. His story is one of relentless pursuit of passion, adaptation in a rapidly evolving sports landscape, and unwavering commitment to excellence in sports broadcasting.Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction and overview of the episode with Jon Anik0:50 - Jon discusses his early career and passion for MMA2:30 - Transitioning into the role of UFC commentator4:20 - Challenges faced during live broadcasts6:00 - Jon’s preparation routine for UFC events7:50 - Memorable moments and favorite fights Jon has called9:30 - The impact of social media on Jon’s career11:15 - Balancing professional and personal life13:00 - Jon’s thoughts on the evolution of the UFC15:10 - Working with Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier17:05 - The significance of fitness in Jon’s routine19:00 - Jon’s experience with high-pressure situations21:00 - Reflections on iconic UFC moments22:55 - The influence of Dana White on Jon’s career24:50 - Jon’s advice for aspiring sports commentators26:45 - The importance of staying informed about fighters28:45 - How Jon stays motivated in his career30:45 - Jon’s insights into the future of MMA32:45 - Closing thoughts on the growth of UFC34:30 - Jon’s final message to fans and sign-offSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn
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Start to think maybe the UFC has a horseshoe up its ass because on the biggest night in
promotional history, one of the biggest fights ends with the consensus greatest knockout
in UFC history.
And if you don't know Max Holloway knocking out Justin Gaethje with one singular second
to go, Justin Gaethje face first to the canvas.
Just kept thinking like there's just no possible way for the sport to top this.
And yet somehow, some way this sport has a history of topping itself.
So we'll see you're listening to part two of my amazing interview with john annick the greatest play
by play announcer in ufc history and one of the greatest announcers in the history of professional
sports if you haven't yet listened to part one be sure to check that one out first now without
further ado here's part two of my amazing interview with John.
Let's talk about my favorite topic in one of yours, which is preparation.
And I call it extreme preparation.
NFL, one game a week, two announcers.
UFC, sometimes 30 fights in a week.
How do you prepare for those shows? How long does it take to prepare
for those shows and go through the process? Because I think people don't understand what
it means to be the most prepared person in the room and how important extreme preparation is
to our success. Well, I'm going to read your book and I'm going to start listening to your podcast
because I actually think you might be one of the few human beings on the face of this earth that can actually help me optimize and make my preparation more efficient.
But in 2009, when I called my first fights for Bellator, it was season one, episode one. I didn't really know what the jumping off point was in terms of how to begin the research. I didn't have fighter bios necessarily at the beginning of that process. We had the internet, but even back then it wasn't as robust as it is today.
So I just started making index cards and writing down what I thought would be
the most important information. Now, Brian Stan, one of my former broadcast partners said to me
at one point in time, it's an open book test, right? Like we're off camera for a lot of this
exercise that when we're calling fights, it's an open book test. You might as well show up with
some notes. Now the key is being able to optimize that note card to have committed enough of that
stuff to memory by handwriting it in the case of my process. So that when you're live, you can be
either watching the monitor or watching the octagon, and that information is not something that you have to necessarily look down at.
But when you talk about 30 fighters and 15 fights, and I might be in a situation where
I have a back-to-back, Saudi Arabia, June 22nd, I got 30 athletes.
And then June 29th, Conor McGregor returns at UFC 303, I got 56 or 60 athletes in a span
of eight days.
How much time am I devoting to each athlete?
And mentally, sometimes that can be hard to wrap my head around. And certainly during the COVID
climate, when we went to 15 fights a card, I said to my boss, like these matchmakers are
fucking killing me. Someone's going to fall through the cracks, right? And I don't want
that to happen. So it's exhaustive. It's a labor of love. Like sometimes I'll sit at the Palm Beach
County Public Library and I'm watching sports, right? I'm watching fights and writing notes.
And I'll think to myself, you're getting paid to watch sports. But all of my anxiety in this job
or 99% of it is in the extreme nature of the preparation. And maybe 1% of my anxiety is in
the actual performance. So give us some quantitative figures.
If you're doing back-to-back shows in a week, is it 40 hours?
It's every hour.
Is it 80 hours?
Every hour that's available to me.
I don't turn on the TV in the hotel room.
I barely FaceTime or talk to my kids.
There's always one more interview you can read.
There's always one more fight you can watch from early on in the UFC careers.
I'm not saying this stuff and professing myself as the hardest worker in the room. It's a
fear of failure showing up to the octagon. And I can't tell you how many times on show day,
when we have a pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden, when my call time is not till 6 p.m.,
the nugget I use on the walkout is the final thing that I uncovered before I went to the arena. So
quantitatively trying to give you an hour. I mean, the process starts about 10 days out.
We voice over a lot of the stuff in advance. So I would say I have probably three hours of
voiceover work in advance of a pay-per-view. Same day?
No. So it'll be oftentimes the voiceovers might be eight or nine days out and then I'll do some voiceovers the day before the show.
Right. We might battle with a pronunciation and something might have to be revoiced.
There might be an error in something that has been laid to tape.
So there are a lot of different circumstances. And the UFC broadcast is a completely different beast.
Right. Like we can talk about the intensive nature of an NFL broadcaster schedule, 17 straight weeks plus the playoffs.
But they're they're on a mic for three hours.
We're doing eight hours.
So it's a little bit of a different exercise that we're walking into.
You mentioned something.
It's minor, but it's major.
Pronunciation of certain names, words.
Akamai Technologies is the name of the big technology company that I started today.
10,000 employees, $4 billion in revenues.
People come in for job interviews.
Acme.
All you need to do.
Bye.
Right.
Bye.
All you need to do.
Well,
one other bye-bye after 10 seconds is what's my dog's name,
which is on my website.
So if you can't read my website and don't know my dog's name is karma.
The interview is over and people have open mouths. What? And it's yeah. What? Bye. You don't, you don't know my dog's name is karma the interview is over and people have open mouths
what and it's yeah what bye you don't you don't know but you don't know what you're
pronunciating names if you're in doubt go to google translate right right so you do all these
things makes you the best at what you do you're considered the best at what you do in the history
of the sport what do you do to stay on top? And are you constantly improving on yourself?
How important is it not to rest on our laurels if we want to be the best?
So one of the most difficult things and inconvenient truths of being a talker for a
living is that you have to scrub your own work and you have to go back, as I'm sure you do,
and listen selectively to your own podcasts and watch, as is the case for me, my UFC pay-per-view
opens. And sometimes I'm not
particularly fond of those deliveries or the way that I look on camera. I would come back to my
identical twin. It's a tremendous resource for me to have, right? Somebody who is a living,
breathing, walking human being that's just like me, who goes through my work and tells me largely
what he doesn't like. But that's something that, you know, I think Kenny Flory and my podcast
co-host doesn't do enough of, right? Is going back and listening to our work because it's a
pain in the ass, right? You get sick of the sound of your own voice, but that is something that I
have always leaned into. There was a time in my career, I guess, where I was caught on an open
mic saying, you know, yeah, I work hard, but am I any fucking good, right? And I felt like there was a
time where I would always get all this credit for being prepared and working hard, but maybe not
for being a performer or being actually good at the craft. And I would take exception to that.
And, you know, I don't regret necessarily saying that, but what I've realized is that,
you know, the key to my success really is hard work and evolving my process a little bit in
terms of taking things off of my
fighter card that I'm not using on fight night, right? First round finishes is something that I
was very rarely going back for. I could always ask the truck on my talkback button for that.
So refining the process, I have tried to learn and master how to pause and I'm still working on
that 22 years into this broadcasting career, getting away from
verbal crutches, just being comfortable with some dead air or with a pause.
But yeah, constantly working on my craft and wanting to create a gap between me and whoever's
chasing me.
Innovation is critical to our success.
UFC kicked boxing's ass because of what it did.
HBO, Stay did the same thing. Dana White comes along, completely changes the nature of the sport.
It's a big show. Team feedback is important. What could the UFC be doing better than it is doing
today? And you say, walk into Dana's office. Hey, Dana, I got an idea for you.
You ever do that? And what does he say? So part of the reason we've realized so much success in
terms of our live event production. Now we never get any Emmy consideration when it comes to our
championship coverage. And I do feel bad for our producers that their championship coverage and
directors has not been acknowledged by that Emmy body,
because I really do believe I would put our live event from a live production standpoint up against
all of these other sports. But I do think there are things that we could do to make
our production better. I think first and foremost would be to show as many fighter walks as possible.
And I know our commercial inventory is robust, but oftentimes we're talking through
those fighter walks and you guys are not getting those at home. So what can we do to shorten up
other things during the broadcast to show those fighter walks? Because those are our
maximum moments for humanization when those fighters are walking out. And yeah, I mean,
I think that's a suggestion that we have thrown out there at times and they do it whenever possible for big fights, but it's just a
really difficult thing for the UFC fight nights, but that's always the foremost suggestion for me.
You know, I don't know that it's necessarily an open forum. It's not that the UFC considers the
source of said suggestion, but I'd be lying if I said that I'm banging
down doors trying to affect major change when it comes to our broadcast. You know, I think there
are some innovators in there. But, you know, Dana White fine-tooth combs this thing. You know,
he does micromanage the whole process. We all make mistakes in our careers. We have challenges.
We make mistakes. You've made one, recent one, UFC 297. You said something about the fans.
Let's talk about that briefly what did you
say and how important is it to say I'm sorry to be successful so I guess I just had an emotional
moment on the podcast and it stemmed from some frustration with a lot of fans who were alleging
bias in a fight between Sean Strickland and Drakus Duplessis for the middleweight championship back
in January and I really kind of went down a rabbit hole on Sean Strickland's Instagram page and just was leaning too much into a lot of those allegations
of bias after what I thought was a very close fight. And I think as a play-by-play guy, if you
don't have objectivity, you have nothing. And so for me, those are the criticisms that I take most
seriously. As far as the regrettable utterance on my podcast, it was me just sort of having a moment. I think Dana White said Anik had a little bit of a meltdown and that's relationship with this fan base, you know, and
I have so much love and support from the fans that maybe it put me in a place of liberation
where I felt like I could sort of have an open conversation with the fans who, I guess, even if
it was a small portion, were really taking issue with that particular call. But there've been
several times where I've had to apologize publicly. You know, I remember an instance with Michael Bisping,
one of my broadcast partners and Colby Covington several years ago, Colby Covington wins the
interim championship. And I thought Michael Bisping was upstaging him on the post-fight show.
And I probably should have just kept my mouth shut. And then I engaged there and I said,
let's not upstage the athlete as the analyst. And then I issued a public apology to Michael Bisping, which probably put more fuel on the fire.
So I'm not afraid to apologize when I think that I have stepped out of bounds.
And certainly when it came to one particular utterance at the fan base this past January, you know, I wish I could have that one back.
But, you know, the result of that was that I sort of got all this love and appreciation
from the rest of the fan base and the fighters and I was not looking for more attention nor
appreciation. So, you know, maybe there was a little bit of a blessing veiled in there. But
at the end of the day, it was just way more noise during a slow MMA news cycle that I could have done
without. Did it feel good to say I'm sorry? Yeah, I mean, I think it always does. I mean,
I don't know how your marriage is, but I apologize way more than my wife does. That's for
sure. My rabbi at our wedding said the three most important words in a marriage is I am sorry. And
boy, was that right? There you go. There you go. That was right. You're live on a mic with tens of
millions of fans. Maybe I think the biggest fight,
maybe even more than a hundred million fans, a lot of pressure. We live in a cancel culture
today. One word that's off, you could be done. How much pressure is that? Do you think about that?
I try not to think about that. I think more about some health issue with my vocals that would
resign me to going back to print journalism. But Tom Brady recently
did an announcement with Michael Strahan. And it was Tom, I don't know if you saw this,
Tom talking about his first assignment for the NFL on Fox is going to be the Cleveland Browns
against the Dallas Cowboys. One of the first times in a public setting for Tom Brady as analyst.
And he started talking about the Cowboys quarterback, Dak Prescott. And he said
something to the effect of, you know, we'll see if Dak Prescott can finally break through. And you are heretofore, Tommy, going to be judged on every
single utterance. And even though what Tom was implying is we'll see if Dak can finally get over
the hump and win a Super Bowl. But the line itself is suggested that Dak really hasn't done a whole
lot of anything. And it was particularly critical. Now, Tom Brady is paid to be critical, but the lesson is you're going to be judged on every single utterance and you have
to just be very careful, but you also have to recognize that and you can't not be critical
for fear that your contemporaries or athletes are going to take issue with those words.
So I try to not think too much about that. But my personality is such that I do
walk right up to that line and try not to cross it, right? You know, you can Google John Anik
209 tattoo if you really want to, right? But there are definitely times where, you know,
my personality maybe puts me in jeopardy of having, you know, my career canceled or, you know, getting on my
boss's radar. But I also am who I am. And, you know, I'm not, I haven't always been like a
fallen line guy. So. So for those people who don't know, tell us about the loss bet and the tattoo.
Well, it's not a loss bet necessarily, right? I mean, it's a tattoo that I wanted, right? Like,
if you really know the story, Nick Diaz was my favorite fighter
and I was trying to bring attention to my podcast. Nate Diaz was fighting Conor McGregor on like two
weeks notice. And so I called Kenny Florian and I thought, you know, maybe I'll do a tattoo bet.
There was the second tattoo bet I had done on my podcast. And I said, if Nate comes out of vacation
in Cabo and beats Conor McGregor this weekend, I'll get a 209 tattoo on my arm.
It'll bring attention to the podcast and also a good way for me to sort of honor the Diaz brothers if it happens because I related to those guys.
I really like Nick.
I would always tell people Nick Diaz was my favorite fighter when I was first getting into mixed martial arts.
But what happened was during fight week, before the fight had happened, somehow, some way, I was the number two guy.
I wasn't calling the pay-per-view. I wasn't covering the live event, but my comments got on Nate Diaz's
radar. And so he went on a hot mic and basically, or he went on social media and just said, you know,
what the hell is John doing? And then my bosses, it got on their radar. And then Nate ends up
winning the fight. And at that point in time, once Nate was upset, I was getting the tattoo
win or lose out of respect, right? Nate wins the fight and he closes out the UFC press conference by saying,
you know, if John Anik doesn't get that 209 tattoo, I'm going to whip his little ass.
So about a year ago, I actually showed my daughters that clip and explained to them
the sort of backstory of it. But I've done probably four or five tattoo bets on my podcast.
I would never do a tattoo bet for something that I wasn't comfortable having emblazoned on my body
for the rest of my life, you know?
And so this is the one we have and the other tattoo bets haven't come in, but I assure
you this will not be the last tattoo bet nor the last tattoo that I get.
What's it like working with Joe Rogan?
Gosh, man, there's nothing like it.
And I won't be the first talking head to suggest to you that he really is a better human
being than he is a podcaster. And I know a lot of his genuineness comes across on his show,
but he's just such a good dude. And I'll just think back to the warm embrace in 2012 when he
didn't know me from a hole in the wall. And I got that call on three days notice or to the time that
I got promoted in 2017 and his longtime broadcast
partner was shown the door and he even embraced me then, however, reluctantly. So I don't know
that I have more eternal gratitude for anybody as far as my career is concerned and him putting me
over as, you know, the best play by play guy out there, I can't even tell you what that has done for me because I don't consider myself to be that.
But his opinion affects so much of what public opinion is.
So I got people coming up to me calling me the fucking goat.
Joe's the goat.
I ain't the goat, right?
But when he calls you that, it obviously has a lot of traction.
So there's nothing like his dynamicism in a broadcast booth.
There's nothing like his dynamicism in a broadcast booth. There's nothing like his comedy on fight night. I mean, nobody gets deeper belly laughs than for out of me, like Joe Rogan does. And it just feels bigger and badder and better when he is there. And as I've said repeatedly, Randy, he's going to do this job way past the time that I do it. I think he's going to be around forever. And hopefully for the sake of MMA fans,
that's the truth. We all meet incredible people in our lives, maybe three or four or five max, we think that person is just one of the greatest people I've ever met. They're generous, they're
loyal, they do things that most people wouldn't do. How amazing is Dana White? He's unbelievable. And when I say this, I hope it doesn't fall on deaf
ears. Mixed martial arts would probably cease to exist in this country without UFC CEO Dana White
and the Fertittas buying the UFC. Mixed martial arts is so big in this country right now,
potentially having closed into that top four with respect to the NHL as a mainstream
top four sport
in this country. So a lot of people might scoff when you say it wouldn't exist without Dana,
but he was so bullish on the sport. They bought the UFC and just continued to pour money into a
sport that they thought could be the greatest spectacle in professional sports. So I don't
know that there's any greater compliment I could give the man. And then I would go to the global pandemic setting when we were all willing to somehow some way get to Lemoore, California with masks on and rental cars and small airplanes and everything else because we would go through a brick wall for that guy. I mean, his staff is so loyal because he has been so loyal to that staff. So when he wanted to be the only show in town during a global
pandemic, even though I might have had some trepidation, you know, I wanted to be that guy
for that guy. So even though at times we butted heads, even though he rode me really hard early on,
I do think even though I respond to different leadership styles, I respond to his sort of
tough love, hardened leadership style,
and I feel like I've earned his respect. It's one thing to be a great boss and to give people
credit for what they built, because I think you're right. UFC, mixed martial arts would not
be here today. But for him, it was an unloved, unproven, violent sport. People thought it was a bunch of animals in the sport. 1993, they were
nearly going bankrupt. But talk about how incredible Dana is as a human being.
Well, Joe Rogan and Dana White are super philanthropic, but they don't scream from
the rooftops about it. And all due respect to all the philanthropists out there who
show you exactly what they do. And it's vast, right? But he does so many things for so many people, right? Like our IT guy just offhandedly, and maybe I shouldn't say this, but just said something about the fucking bench in Phoenix, you know, and those
gestures have happened thousands of times over and you experienced one yourself. So heart of gold
doesn't even begin to describe it. And I do think it flies in the face of a little bit of his
hardened exterior at times. And maybe they don't think that that side of him dovetails with, you know, the bullish UFC
executive that is willing to take on all comers.
But he's very much a layered, multifaceted individual.
And yeah, one of the more, you know, deep hearted, philanthropical guys I've ever come
across.
For those people listening and watching the show today, if you haven't checked out my
pod with Dana, he does tear up a little bit.
And I did make Dana cry at the Grand Ballroom at the Bellagio Hotel for the scale conference.
Hopefully, we'll be able to put that video up as well.
But as you said, he does amazing things for people.
He doesn't like talking about it.
At the conference, I did make him talk about it.
And he called it an Oprah moment, which is great.
Talk about UFC 300.
Why was it one of the greatest cards of all time? And then
talk about that ridiculous knockout with one second ago. I don't even know where to begin.
I probably cussed enough today. But if you think back to UFC 200 in 2016, I don't know where you
were, but probably in a decidedly different place than 2024. I mean, I wasn't calling UFC 200. I was in the building. But
these milestone events, and I could sit here and suggest to you that UFC 303, headlined by
Conor McGregor here in a few weeks, is a monumental event in its own right. But UFC 400 is going to be
in 2032. So these things happen every eight years. So you can hope that the calendar aligns perfectly and you can have all this star power and your
athletes can stay healthy and you can line up this perfect fight card, but you never
know if it's going to stay together.
And then the date finally materializes and you hope that the fight card delivers, but
you just never know.
And then you put together a BMF title fight between Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway, and you feel like it is the most bulletproof piece of matchmaking that you've ever put together. You know that fight's going to entertain. And then you start to think maybe the UFC has a horseshoe up its ass because on the biggest night in promotional history, one of the biggest fights ends with the consensus greatest knockout in UFC history and if you don't know Max Holloway knocking out Justin Gaethje with one singular second to go Justin Gaethje face first
to the canvas and I think back to so many things at UFC 300 like just hitting the talkback button
to the truck and the producers being like are you guys kidding me like how good are you kidding me
like you just can't draw it up any better and i just just kept
thinking like there's just no possible way for the sport to top this and yet somehow some way
this sport has a history of topping itself so we'll see but i don't think that moment gets
topped anytime soon for all the fans out there who haven't seen the knockout it's on youtube
the video and your reaction and jo Rogan's reaction was unbelievable.
Yeah, well, it was incredible. I'm thinking in that moment about the call as much as anything else. But when something like that happens so late in the fight, it's an out of body experience
a little bit. I've oftentimes talked about how I don't always control my diaphragm properly when
I'm breathing. So I am on the cusp of passing out potentially. And I do start to see stars, but at that point in time,
yes, it's UFC 300. Yes. It's for the BMF title, but with one second to go had to somehow be
hammered home. And you do hope by the way, as the play-by-play guy, you're cheating the clock,
looking at the clock. You hope that the record will dovetail with the call and it won't be at 458 or with
two seconds to go. But to me, I saw 459 or I saw 001 and I was like, dude, it was one second ago.
It wasn't three, it wasn't two. So twice in the call, we do reference one second to go and
thankfully we got the call right. But in that moment, I remember early on in my career, like I was reluctant to
just hammer through, maybe fearful to steamroll Joe Rogan or Daniel Cormier. And now, obviously,
this deep in, it's like, I got to go. I got to finish that championship call, come hell or high
water. And if there's a little bit of a traffic jam, so be it. But dude, it was absolutely insane.
Just complete pandemonium. I interviewed Dana for my show two days before, which was incredible timing. And then my wife
and I went to UFC 300. We were in Vegas for the show. So we're with some friends at a 3.30 dinner.
They work for Bob, Bill Foley, who owns the Knights. And they're, of course,
in a bunker box. And we're waiting for two extra tickets of people on show. And we're like, man,
it didn't come through. So with maybe two hours before the fight, we just said, fuck it. We went
online. We paid $2,500 a ticket for a great season. It was great. It was so good, by the way.
It's so good, right? I mean, the most I've ever spent for a sporting ticket in my life, $4,500 to see the Patriots
play the Rams in the Super Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia.
It's the best money I've ever spent.
That's so great that you guys did that.
It was awesome.
You're 45 years old.
You're a contractor's players in 2006.
You've talked about you want to maybe be play-by-play for football, NFL.
Your dream job maybe is be the daily announcer for the Boston Red Sox.
What's next for you?
So it's crazy to think that at the end of this contract in 2026, I'll be 15 years in.
And to think that I've spent so much more time with the UFC than I did at ESPN back in the day,
even though we are on ESPN right now. I think for an American football fan like me, there's always going to be part of me that wants to scratch that itch and prove to myself and my family and my
supporters that I can call NFL football and realize success, not only at the highest level of my craft,
but in the sport that is the most ubiquitously viewed
in the United States of America. So I don't know that the NFL itch is ever going to go away
with any sort of ointment, but I have the job that I want. And I don't know that any live event
is going to be as exciting for me to call as a UFC pay-per-view. I think most of these other
events are going to pale in comparison. And even when, you know, maybe I had some wayward comments about the fans back in January, you know, Joe
Rogan texted me immediately and said, you know, don't leave for a less exciting sport, you know,
and most of the sports are less exciting. But I also am largely focused on, as trite as it sounds,
earning this seat for every show, you know, and making sure
that, you know, they don't want to give the number two or number three guy an opportunity to do a
pay-per-view because they think they'd be losing too much. You know, like I want, even though I
never tuned in for announcers to keep hearing from UFC fans who say they tune in for me and that it's
a worse experience when I'm not there. So I have the job that I want. If I'm a betting man, I would
say I probably don't call an NFL game and I re-sign with the UFC and this is what I do until the voice goes out. But having done major college
football on the national level, I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't dream of gracing the Detroit
Lions, Minnesota Vikings booth before it's all said and done. That's awesome. Before I conclude
today, I want to finish my podcast with some open-ended questions. I call this part of my show
fill in the blank to excellence. You ready to play? Yes. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is
be ready for an opportunity because you might actually have to do the 4.20 p.m. Eastern Standard
Update even though you're ill-prepared. So be ready. My number one professional goal is?
To call an NFL football game.
My biggest regret in life is?
My biggest regret in life is not going to college with my twin brother and being on a similar
trajectory with him at a younger age to try to
maximize ourselves as identical twins, right? We haven't been in a doublement commercial yet,
and the clock is ticking. My number one personal goal is?
My number one personal goal is to be a more present father, you know, not just being there,
but to be mentally present in those moments,
right? To not be thinking about work when I'm with my kids.
I struggle with that all the time. And it's part of being, I hate to say being successful,
but to being obsessive about what you're doing and wanting to be the best and always thinking
there's more I could be doing. But as my kids get older, and you'll see this with your kids as well,
the funnel to spend more time with them gets less and less. And it happens so fast. When they get to be 16 years old, they want to hang out with you. Well, really at 14. And then each year it
gets less and less. And then when they go to college, you really don't see them anymore.
But I think it's something I struggle with and I'm working on very, very hard.
No, I feel like my daughters even right now lean on me for things that they will be leaning
on boyfriends for in the not too distant future.
Where are you guys?
I'm getting fucking tired.
Yeah.
My biggest fear in life is?
Other than heights, I think it's failure and just having a bad broadcast and having Joe
Rogan ask me, hey, which neck fusion surgery did Brian Kelleher get? And this is the one time this has happened. I said, you know what, Joe, I don't have that answer for you.
My purpose in life is? uh, is to create successful children and to allow people through my professional work to
have some sort of escapism from just how difficult life is. And even though I used to work with
special needs kids and I think really affected lives in a, in a more profound way, I do think
that we affect a lot of lives with the work that we do,
even in a recreational way. And, you know, I do feel purposive, I guess, about that.
The best announcer in sports history is?
Sean McDonough, still getting it done in his prime in game seven of the Stanley Cup playoffs
right now. Perhaps there's a little Boston bias in there. I think Jim Lampley is the greatest
combat sports play-by-play guy of all time.
I have a lot of other announcers I look up to,
but Sean McDonough is the GOAT.
Al Michaels, do you believe in miracles?
A tremendous call, right?
And not something that he probably
thought a whole lot about.
I don't know if he has admitted
as to whether or not that was something
that originated organically out of his mouth.
But yeah, Al Michaels is a complete stud. And it's amazing how many guys in the
sports broadcasting field keep doing it deep into their 60s and 70s. I can assure you,
I'm not going to be on a microphone past the age of 70. If I'm even still here, there's no way.
The craziest thing that's happened in my career or life is?
Definitely taking the leap of faith with the UFC and moving
to Las Vegas with a two-month-old daughter, thinking that I had finally gotten to ESPN and
I was going to hunker down in Connecticut. Still to this day, I think about my young family moving
to Vegas thinking, not what were we doing, but are we really doing this? If you could create your
one dream fight, what would it be? Gosh, some of them are fights that go back in time. But for me, like right now,
we have the consensus greatest of all time, Jon Jones against Tom Aspinall, who a lot of people
believe is the most skilled heavyweight they've ever seen. So Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall is
the dream fight right now. But the fact that we never saw George St. Pierre versus Anderson Silva
just sticks in my craw. You know, Lorenzo Fertitta was always the strike while the iron's hot type
of guy, and they never got GSP Anderson Silva to the finish line, unfortunately.
The one thing I've dreamt about doing for a long time but haven't is?
Just vacations, right? And I don't mean trips with children, but you and I talked on air and
off air just about the intense, noisy nature of our lives. And I think I need to lean more into vacation
and then just being present when I'm on those vacations.
But sometimes the noise doesn't turn off.
But if you were to ask me,
like, when's the last time you went
on a vacation free of children?
I don't think I could tell you the answer.
10 years from now, I'm going to be-
10 years from now, I'm going to be a better golfer.
I'm going to be shooting in the low 80s consistently.
I will have had one sort of knee or hip surgery, I would think, from pickleball.
But I'll be a better golfer and I won't be traveling as much internationally.
We built a pickleball court at our house eight years ago.
Wow.
Early in it, we have some really fun games.
A lot of interesting people come over.
When you're in LA, you got to come over and play with us.
I will.
It's cool.
And I got my new tournament doubles partner right here, Jay, if you're listening.
Randy's our guy.
There you go.
What's the one piece of advice you would give to your 21-year-old self?
So I always knew that discipline was greater than motivation, but I didn't learn acutely about hard work until
probably 10 years thereafter. So I guess I would have said to my 21-year-old self,
just lean more into the hard work. And even if I would go back a few years before 21,
I just became obsessed with girls and different things when I should have been more focused on like high school basketball and optimizing myself as an athlete, you know? So just leaning into the hard
work earlier, my daughters and my son are so sick of hearing it, but I just, I was a much harder
worker at 27, 28 than I was naturally at 21. If you could meet one person in the world,
who would it be? Bill Belichick. I mean, that is the easiest question Randy has asked me here today. I have drawn so much inspiration from him. I think he's
perpetually misunderstood as a lot of public figures are. Even at Tom Brady's roast recently,
he's saying, you know, I'm not a bad guy and people are sort of laughing. And, you know,
Bill Belichick's the fucking man. And I dream that I get the chance to shake his hand. His kids went
to the same high school that I went to. So there's connective tissue there. But yeah, with respect to all
the great leaders and politicians and human beings and philanthropists out there, Bill Belichick,
every day of the week. The Tom Brady host was outrageously hilarious. Tom has come out and said
he was regretful of the impact it had on his kids there were a lot of sexual jokes about giselle
his mom but it was great and it's amazing that not great because of his kids by the way the
whole thing was just funny right funny as shit actually oh yeah um and belchick went on the show
and became more of a human being to people a lot of people were very surprised yeah i mean they
poked fun at him like walking out of some random chick's house or apartment
in the middle of the night, you know, but it's interesting when you're in the public
eye because my daughters aren't yet at the age where they are Googling me, but certainly
unlike you and I'm being suggestive here, but there's a lot more inflammatory stuff
out there that I have said probably that you have that my kids will eventually come across.
And it's not that I don't consider myself a role model necessarily, but I want my kids to know who I am. And so if
that means that they come across a rant about recreational drugs at some point in time, like,
I'm okay with that, you know? So I, you know, I'm okay with certain things. I think I would have
been more okay with that roast than Tom was.
The one question you wish I'd asked you but didn't is?
Gosh, you know, I know you have drawn rave reviews for all of your ability to formulate questions.
I guess if there's one question, you know, what's it going to take for the UFC to get to that next level? And I think it's just
time. You know, I certainly think this next TV deal is going to be huge for us, right? You have
the Fox deal that laid the foundation for the ESPN deal. People thinking $4.2 billion. Is this
crazy? Did Ari Emanuel overpay? Now it looks like an underpayment, right? So what is this next TV
deal going to hold? Is it really going to be on Netflix and available to that many more millions of people?
So we just need time.
But I do think eventually this sport, not just globally, but domestically becomes as
big as anything else out there.
And thankfully, we got you on the bandwagon now.
I love it.
Is there anything on the show you want to promote before we end here today?
No, I mean, thankful for the time with you today and look forward to picking your brain as a mentor in the not too distant future. And I would just
be thankful to this entire fan base, you know, for just supporting me and gives us a lot of
confidence as broadcasters to feel that love from the fans. And, uh, these are special live events.
You know, I, I'm trying to sort of recognize that the journey is the destination and to not forget to have fun while I'm doing
these, you know, hard broadcasts, but, uh, no, just really thankful to, uh, you know,
be with you today.
And, uh, we look forward to UFC 303 and Conor McGregor's return here in a few weeks.
You're an awesome guy.
Thank you.
Congratulations on all of your immense success.
And thanks for welcoming me to South Florida today.
My man, you too.
Appreciate you.
Thank you, Randy.