TORONTO – Digital specialty channel The Fight Network announced the hiring of its first full-time anchor this week.
Sportscaster Ryan Bennett to anchor and head up the channel’s growing commitment to news and event coverage from around the fight world.
“We are very excited here at The Fight Network to have landed such a unique talent as Ryan Bennett," said Mike Garrow, president, in a press release. “Ryan’s knowledge and insight in the various fight sports that we carry such as boxing, wrestling and mixed martial arts is second to none, and we are very confident that viewers will come to appreciate Ryan’s personality and professionalism that he brings to out network,” he added.
Bennett has spent the past six years at the NBC affiliate in Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo, California at KSBY-TV as the top rated sportscaster in the market according to the Nielsen ratings. Before that Bennett was working for the NBC affiliate in Oregon as Sports Director. Bennett has also hosted several sports talk shows over the years with such stations as ESPN 1280 and Sports Radio 570AM.
Bennett has also provided play-by-play for several fight promotions over the years such as K-1, Rumble on the Rock, World Extreme Cage Fighting, IFC and a number of professional boxing events with the most recent show being seen on HDNET in the United States. He has also worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championships (“UFC”) as an in-ring reporter. Bennett is also a founding partner in MMA Weekly.com which is regarded by many to be the number one news source on the World Wide Web for mixed martial arts fans.
"A 24 hour specialty channel that is dedicated to all combatant sports and theme related entertainment is long overdue," said Bennett. "I don’t think Fight Network could have come along at a better time.”
Bennett’s duties will include overseeing news feature development as news director, on-air anchoring, field reporting at all major fight sports events and play-by-play coverage for all Fight Network acquired event programming.
Pictured are Garrow, left, and Bennett.
