UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall is embracing his new side gig as a commentator.
Best and worst MMA reporters/journalists?
— Tom Aspinall (@AspinallMMA) May 3, 2023
Results
Ariel takes the cake with 61 votes for the best commentator/journalist. Followed with a significant gap by Luke Thomas who received 24 mentions and Alex Behunin with 22 votes.
97 journalists/commentators have been mentioned at least once.
16 received from 2 to 3 mentions.
316 votes have were cast overall.
In a surprising turn of events, the commenters hardly mentioned personalities they didn’t like – except for one. Ariel Helwani received 26 negative votes, but in most cases, he received best AND worst at the same time.
Personal List
Before diving into the mentions, I thought about making my list. Ranking is approximately by time invested listening/watching them talk fighting.
- Ariel Helwani – ever since he revived his old studio, it has been very good entertainment. In particular the loosened up format with different segments, guests, straying into different sports and banter with his producers.
- Luke Thomas – great insights around MMA and absolute silliness with Brian Campbell on the Morning Kombat show
- Dan Hardy – his detailed breakdowns of upcoming fights.
- Joe Rogan – he doesn’t do as much MMA content these days, but it comes up from time to time during various interviews.
- Michael Bisping – on his personal YouTube channel and the Believe You Me podcast with Anthony Smith.
- John McCarthy and Josh Thompson - Weighing In podcast. Fascinating to see a fighter's perspective clash with that of a referee.
- True Geordie – appreciate his MMA takes
Conclusion
I did expect Ariel Helwani to lead by a significant margin and was hoping that Luke Thomas would be as valued as he deserves.
Surprising to me was the absence of Dan Hardy. Especially since he is from the UK, former UFC fighter, former UFC commentator and prolific analyst of fights and fighters.
Completely new to me was Alex Behunin and Marcell Dorff.