UFC events are no longer just fights; they are marathons. The kind where the early prelims feel like an entirely separate show, and by the time the main event begins, hardcore fans are running on caffeine. The UFC promotes it as a full-day experience, but even die-hard fans have admitted that eight-hour cards aren’t always entertaining. Sometimes they feel like homework.

That’s why Jon Anik‘s most recent take landed the way it did. Anik isn’t just some random fan grumbling online; he’s the broadcast’s voice, and he’s expected to be sharp from the first walkout to the final verdict. Instead of sugarcoating it, he simply stated what many people have been thinking: the Dana White-led promotion has gotten too big for its own good.

Jon Anik wants a UFC roster purge to shorten events

According to Jon Anik, the major issue with the promotion is that the cards are too long. “I think our biggest challenge is the fact that our events are way too long,” he said in a recent interview, suggesting that UFC nights should be cut to 10 or 11 fights instead of 15.

He even indicated he’d be fine with events lasting five or six hours rather than eight, because the weekly demand is enormous when you zoom out. “We ask a lot of our fans, even fans as rabid as yourselves—eight hours times 41 Saturdays, right? So if I could effect change in one way, it would be (to cut down on the hours).”

Then he got to the part that seemed almost unthinkable: the roster itself. Jon Anik said that the UFC is beholden to too many high-level stakeholders, with several TV partners across the world, as well as a roster “north of 600,” while still recruiting approximately 50 new fighters each year through the Contender Series, which he described as less than ideal.

So, in his opinion, that pipeline is bloating the schedule and diluting the product. As a result, he proposed the most aggressive solution possible. If he had Dana White’s power, Anik said he’d cut several fighters off the roster and force the UFC to adopt a leaner model: fewer fights, fewer filler bouts, and more energy saved for the most important fights.

Jon Anik said, “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.” The interesting part is that he even confessed the idea might sound selfish, because he’s a broadcaster who doesn’t understand how they keep doing “back-to-back Super Bowls” every time they’re on the air.

But it was his honesty that made it hit harder. The UFC broadcaster wasn’t pretending that the grind was normal. He was stating that the machine expects too much from everyone, including fans, fighters, and those calling the action.

And, with the UFC entering a new era in 2026, Jon Anik’s idea seems more like a warning than a hot take. Fighters and irrelevant fights should be cut down, especially when events like the one in the White House are promising multiple title fights in one night.

Jon Anik hints at multiple undisputed title contests at UFC White House

This is where Jon Anik’s “cutting” argument begins to make more sense because if the UFC is serious about producing a White House card as the sport’s biggest flex ever, the typical bloated structure will not suffice. You can’t pitch something as a once-in-a-generation spectacle and then treat it like another eight-hour program full of filler.

The UFC broadcaster seems to see the event as a perfect chance to completely transform the UFC into a sharper, more premium brand. On the JAXXON Podcast, Anik responded to Donald Trump‘s wild claim that the June 14 event would feature eight or nine title fights. While he didn’t fully buy that number, he also didn’t laugh it off. Instead, he suggested that it might be near enough to surprise fans.

“So eight sounds idealistic and awfully ambitious. But I do believe… that we are moving in a direction in which you might see six or seven undisputed titles contested on the White House lawn,” he said. That’s not just a stacked card; the UFC is trying to stage its own Super Bowl of belts.

And Anik’s argument was rather simple: timing. By early February, UFC 324 and UFC 325 will be done, which means that many champions will be cleared and accessible. February has no numbered events, March is headlined by a BMF title fight that does not count as undisputed gold, and there is ample time for the UFC to hold champions back and pack the White House card like a trophy case.

In his opinion, this is how you end up with names like Khamzat Chimaev, Alex Pereira, and even heavyweights like Tom Aspinall potentially being saved for one night—a card so loaded that it would nearly justify Jon Anik’s roster purge by itself.

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