Las Vegas, Nevada — UFC play-by-play man Jon Anik will spend a solid eight hours, if not more, in the booth for UFC 259.
With 15 fights scheduled, there’s a ton of action for Anik to call. But, quoting his former broadcast partner Brian Stann on Friday, Anik said “It’s an open book test, so you might as well show up with some damn notes.” With that in mind, the veteran broadcaster has “more notes than I know what to do with right now.”
And that probably wouldn’t stop him from being up until 2AM the night before the event, he added. The card takes place Saturday, March 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
On Friday, Anik gave his take on the trio of title fights topping the UFC 259 marquee. And singled out “The Lioness” in the process. “Every time Amanda Nunes fights, every time Khabib Nuramgomedov fights, they are putting their legacy as a greatest of all time type on the line,” he stated. “So any time Amanda fights there’s always a lot of pressure on her. You can argue Megan Anderson is fighting to save a division, I don’t know the inner workings on that. But there’s pressure on both sides.”
Anderson is seen as the last contender at featherweight for Nunes. The division currently has all of four fighters including champ and challenger, and has never had more than six.
Then there’s what Anik calls the “untalked about part” to the main event. “Israel Adesanya is 20-0 as he moves up to light heavyweight. The timing, people are wondering about the timing and why Izzy is biting off this challenge now. But he’s putting a 20-0 record on the line. That’s a very big deal to me.”
Add in the “pick ’em” fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling, and you have something special. “Thankfully this card held together. Championship triple headers are a rare thing.”
UFC 259 takes place Saturday, March 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can watch Jon Anik’s full press scrum above.
