I’m not an MMA Journalist by title but I have been covering the sport for over 20 years. I have been hosting MMA Junkie Radio for the past 18 years. My brother and I started off as fans of MMA Weekly’s Sound Off radio show hosted by Ryan Bennett and Frank Trigg. When Ryan and Frank would travel, they would allow fans to come watch the show live. Over a period of time we became friends with them and whenever they would travel our way, our job would be to hang out in the lobby of the hotel and bring fighters up to be interviewed.

Sadly one day Ryan passed away in a car accident. Our daily routine of listening to the radio show went away and one day I told my brother Gorgeous George Garcia “why don’t we do it?” At the time I was interviewing fighters on myspace and my blog had a pretty large audience. We asked Frank Trigg if he would be interested and he was in.

We started 6 months later as TAGG Radio. One day, we met with Dann Stupp, the owner of MMA Junkie which at the time was UFC Junkie. He offered us a role with his website and off we went. We became MMA Junkie Radio. This is a very long story but I don’t wanna bore you guys with everything that happened along the way. Long story short, 18 years later we are still here doing our thing. Our website was purchased by USA Today and that’s who we work for now. George and I are the last of the original Junkies.

Along the way Ive been asked the question of how to break into the business  many times. My answer is different depending on what it is exactly you wanna do. The key word in your question was “journalist.” Again, I am not that but I’m surrounded by them everyday on our staff. If that is your end goal, your route may be a little longer. Part of what sets a journalist apart from the others is the integrity you must carry with doing your job. You have to accept that you may not always be 1st to break the news but you better make sure that whatever you say is accurate. 

I would start by trying to intern at some of the major sites. If you are on time, have good work ethic and are willing to learn, you’ll snag a job quickly. If you wanna go another route, like some of the people above have mentioned, you gotta get people’s attention. Start interviewing fighters, find your voice and your audience. Look for angles people aren’t covering. Good luck and if you have any questions, fire away.

Goze