Mixed martial arts commentating veteran Mike Goldberg was once the voice of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) alongside Joe Rogan. However, the cage side commentator was released from his position after the mixed martial arts promotion was sold to William Morris Endeavor.
Goldberg would go on to be replaced by Jon Anik in the cage side seat, as Anik continues to commentate for the UFC today. Goldberg eventually made his way under the banner of competing promotion Bellator MMA.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Mike Goldberg offered his thoughts on the current state of the UFC’s commentating.
“It’s different, and I’m a competitor, let’s just say that.”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that Bellator has the best TV broadcast in MMA. And that’s not being disrespectful to anybody. Jon Anik is my buddy. He never did anything to me and I never did anything to him.
“Those guy are my friends, but at the end of the day it’s competition. We’re all trying to get ratings and Bellator’s ratings are going up — we know what’s happening on the other side (UFC).”
“I just want to do what I do, so do I see things that make me go, ‘Wow, that was really interesting. That was really not as exciting as it could be.’
“It’s just moments. It’s not anybody’s fault and don’t get me wrong, people have been saying things about me for 100 years and I’ve made my mistakes. I’d like to remind people that my blooper real is maybe 15 or 20 minutes long. I was probably on the air for two million minutes though, so that’s pretty good, right? But I do watch it and I see the difference.”
