Last May, the UFC inked a lucrative deal with sports broadcasting giant ESPN. As stipulated, the partnership will be good for five years amounting to $150 million per year, and will begin by January 2019.
Along with this new arrangement comes another one. In a recent episode of his Believe You Me podcast, former middleweight champion Michael Bisping announced his recent inclusion into the UFC commentary team.
“I’m gonna be commentating UFC events going forward, so that’s interesting and exciting for me,” Bisping said (transcript by MMA Weekly). “Just going back-and-forth with the UFC, gonna be obviously continuing with ESPN in the New Year.
“Got the first few dates, Brooklyn, Phoenix, London, so that’s exciting and yeah they’ll be some commentary in there as well. Yet to get my first gig booked, but we’ve negotiated the deal and everything.
“So that’s good news. It’s exciting times.”
Even before he made his retirement official in May, “The Count” was already a fixture at FOX Sports’ UFC Tonight, with the likes of Kenny Florian and Tyron Woodley. With this new development involving ESPN, he will now be sharing commentary duties with fellow fighters like Dominick Cruz, Paul Felder and Daniel Cormier, alongside Joe Rogan and Jon Anik at the UFC broadcast booth.
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