Everything old is new again for Jon Anik this week.
Anik, the longtime lead play-by-play voice for the UFC, will lead the fight broadcast Saturday for the boxing match being dubbed “Fight of the Century” between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will put his undisputed super middleweight title on the line against the undefeated Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. And while Anik’s voice has been heard by millions of people at a time hundreds of times, there’s a strong chance Saturday’s broadcast on Netflix will be a new high bar for him.
Longtime boxing viewers might presume Anik’s only been an MMA voice, and longtime UFC viewers might presume the same. But Anik got started in broadcast sports journalism nearly 25 years ago in boxing. Saturday, he’ll be on the call with longtime boxing sportscaster Max Kellerman and boxing Hall of Famer and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Andre ward, who retired undefeated.
Anik said he doesn’t necessarily feel pressure to have his call be the type that plays to the instantly viral-type social media spotlight.
“Stylistically, as a commentator, it’s just going to be more toward the old-school boxing fan,” Anik told MMA Junkie Radio. “I don’t want to cut myself down and be suggesting that I’m just a meat-and-potatoes guy, but I’m diving into the f*cking preparation of these athletes. I’m not trying to pull off some amazing one-liner (on the broadcast) that’s going to get Tik-Tok’d to hell.”
In that regard, though, Anik said what his assignment is on the Canelo-Crawford broadcast is not that different that what it’s been ever since he came on with the UFC. When he first made the move from ESPN to the promotion, he was doing a combination of fight calls and hosting.
But even back in his early days in the UFC nearly 15 years ago, he likely couldn’t have envisioned the media world’s future being so driven by the so-called attention economy and social media influencers being such a big part of the combat sports “journalism” world.
That won’t influence how he calls the fight, though. He’ll still be in a world he’s gotten used to.
“Certainly I understand there’s a responsibility to, at times, cater to a wider audience,” Anik said. “I was charged with that 14 years ago when the UFC signed with FOX, when the UFC signed with ESPN seven years ago – not dumbing it down, necessarily, but … I’m just going to do my thing.”
