Jon Anik reveals he would cut 150 UFC fighters to help fix one massive issue if he was Dana White

What would you do if you were the UFC president?

Mixed martial arts fans recently answered that question as part of TalkingPoints on Bloody Elbow, and plenty of changes were proposed to Dana White.

From fighter pay improvements and bonus boosts to new eye poke penalties and fines for ‘ducking’, the community is not short on ideas for how the UFC could be improved.

And even those inside the organization have some suggestions, including the promotion’s lead commentator…

Jon Anik wants a UFC roster purge to allow for shorter events

Jon Anik has been a mainstay on UFC broadcasts since taking over from Mike Goldberg as lead play-by-play commentator in 2017.

As one of the longest-tenured figures on the UFC coverage, his opinion holds plenty of weight with fans — and that may include his latest regarding a big change he’d like to see implemented.

Anik believes UFC events last too long and could do with being a couple of hours shorter. If he was White and had the power to achieve that, he would reduce cards to 10 fights and purge the roster by 150 athletes.

“I think our biggest challenge is the fact that our events are way too long,” Anik said during a recent interview on the Spinnin Backfist MMA Show. “We should have 10 or 11 fights instead of 15.

“Even if you wanted to make (events) five or six hours instead of eight, I’d be okay with it. We ask a lot of our fans…eight hours, times 41 Saturdays, right?

“We have a lot of masters to serve, right? Television partners in different countries…a roster north of 600, getting 50 fighters signed on the Contender Series every year, which I think is less than ideal,” he added.

“If I could affect change in one way — and perhaps it’s selfish ’cause I’m a broadcaster that doesn’t understand how we do back-to-back Super Bowls every time we crack a mic — I would cut 150 fighters off the roster. I would do 10 fights a card and just make it a much more ingestible, palatable sporting event.”