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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC broadcaster Jon Anik has been a major part of the UFC's continued expansion with the Fox family of networks, taking on a number of roles from play by play man to Ultimate Insider host on Fuel TV and more, and he's settled in nicely over his more than year and a half with the organization. He's already gotten a chance to make a few memorable calls on the UFC's live events on FX and Fuel TV, perhaps the greatest of which came just last weekend in an excellent call on Vitor Belfort's spinning heel kick knock down over Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX 8.
Anik joined MMATorch Editor Jamie Penick and MMATorch Columnist Rich Hansen this week on a new MMATorch Livecast at BlogTalkRadio.com to discuss Saturday's event and a number of other topics. In this first grouping of comments, Anik talks about the call on Belfort's kick, the absence of TRT conversation during Saturday's broadcast, and his own openly candid thoughts on TRT.
On his excellent call the moment Belfort landed the head kick:
I chalk that up mostly to being fortunate with the timing; I guess having called Vitor's last fight against Michael Bisping, he is pretty deceptive sometimes when he is trying to set up one of those seminal fight ending finishes. Better to be lucky than good, right place/right time, and I guess I got that 'canvas' word out just in time and Rockhold was twitching shortly thereafter. [It was] just an amazing experience to do those two fights, and really those two cards in Brazil. As you guys know the crowds are lit, they're there early, they stay late, and it was just a sight to behold and just a cool experience being in there Saturday night.
On the fight day grind:
It's a grind, man. We're on headset as you guys know for six and a half, seven hours, and so much of what we're doing over the course of the night is to try to conserve the energy so that we have room in our register to go up as the fights get progressively bigger. You know, you do 13 fights, obviously the main event should have a different feel.
On Belfort's finishing ability:
[Rockhold] seemed to come to pretty quickly - not that he ever went out before hitting the mat. That's why those final moments and your ability to execute are so key, because a lot of guys we see gas themselves out trying to finish somebody with ground and pound. So much of it is about location and accuracy when you have an opponent stunned to finish like that. Vitor did that against Bisping, he did it again against Rockhold, and that's why he remains one of the best in the world.
On the fantastic crowds in Brazil:
It is amazing [being in a crowd in Brazil]. I've always put the Canadian fight fans at the top of the list per capita where the best MMA fans reside. Man, Brazil's closing the gap. That was just an incredible night for the crowd, as it was for so many fighters. I guess my biggest take away is the fact that, maybe we had 8,000 people in there Saturday night, they sound like the Bell Centre's 22,000. They really sound as though there's three times as many people there. That's always my big take away... They take advantage of whatever bleacher they're on. I don't know, despite that being a new arena, that those were the most comfortable bleacher-type stands, but they were stomping their feet and chanting. And as you said, from the outset, middle of the afternoon, 5:15-5:30 our first fight local time, Lucas Martins and Jeremy Larsen which of course was the fight of the night. They're loud man, and really, they just don't let up. I think with a lot of fans, maybe they're drinking early, they're tailgaiting and they tail off, these fans don't tail off. That's why we keep going back, man. This arena, Jaragua do Sul, is very much in the middle of nowhere, and they go find it. A lot of people in Brazil had to fly into this fight; they go find it, and that's why we're going to keep tapping into different Brazilian destinations and see where it sticks. But so far, it's sticking everywhere.
On TRT not being mentioned during the UFC on FX 8 broadcast:
I think it was more a decision about what we wanted to hit on as opposed to what we didn't want to hit on. I suppose if there were a casual drop of the 'TRT' bomb during the broadcast it wouldn't have been some huge issue. I just knew that we weren't going to lead the show with it. Certainly it was a big backdrop to this fight. But I also feel like Vitor has sort of gotten a little bit of a bad rap - even though I am vehemently against testosterone replacement therapy and therapeutic use exemptions; no longer paid for my opinion on it, by the way. At ESPN I was paid in my chats to give my opinion on the subject, and I gave it with conviction. But as far as this show was concerned, and as far as Vitor's concerned, he's not the first, won't be the last. I hope he's one of the few that is the last, because I think it is a problem in mixed martial arts and in the UFC. But he's not the first to get a therapeutic use exemption, yet he seems to be a lighting rod for it and he seems to be the guy that generates the most discussion about it. I don't like it, and I don't know the extent to which fighters are using it, in terms of a percentage of how many; but I feel like when Forrest Griffin got a therapeutic use exemption against Tito Ortiz on that mammoth pay-per-view I believe that was Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen II, it wasn't a huge focus for anyone. Yet he was the younger fighter in that situation, and nobody really talked much about it. I guess I don't know that it was a concerted effort on our part as much as it was a concerted effort to keep the focus on the fight, which quite frankly wasn't getting enough play if that Twitter trending topics is any indication.
On whether something needs to be done about TRT sooner than later:
Absolutely so that we're not looking back at this as the "TRT Era." Perhaps if there is change that we will look at this in part as the "TRT Era." I just think that there are so few medical cases of guys who actually need these therapeutic use exemptions and they need to be using this stuff to either stay alive or to compete. And I think the other side of the argument that I don't totally disagree with is that if you need this type of treatment then you shouldn't be fighting in a cage against another human being. And I do believe our sport is different, because you're defending a chin, and not a rim in basketball. So I do believe it's a problem; I wouldn't go as far as to use the word "epidemic." Because what you've got to realize, too, is that a fighter like Kenny Florian, his career was ended because of injury, and I have no doubt that if he were to pursue this course of action that his back would probably recover more quickly and he could probably resume his career. But a lot of guys who have normal testosterone levels don't want to use this because they don't want to have to use this with finality for the rest of their lives. I think these guys as a whole, these 450 fighters in the UFC, a lot of them care about health, and long term health. Thus, nutrition and everything else is a big part of their everyday lives. So I do think there's a decent chunk of these guys that are reluctant to use it. It is a problem, and I do believe that we risk a whole era being stained if we don't nip it in the bud and regulate it better.
Check back tomorrow for part two, featuring much more from Anik on Fox Sports 1, the flyweights, Nik Lentz, Fuel TV's future, his worst sports-fan moment, and more!
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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