ESPN announced Friday that they hired veteran combat sports reporter Andreas Hale.
Per a post on X from the network, the longtime reporter joins ESPN as its Combat Sports Insider.
They also revealed that Hale’s first assignment with the network will be the much-anticipated UFC 300 event.
Veteran journalist @AndreasHale joins https://t.co/DMeGvzXRPA as a combat sports insider
First assignment: #UFC300
Check out Hale's coverage here ➡️ https://t.co/7hOTektUDf pic.twitter.com/zqvMRHjpYK
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) April 12, 2024
Hale was recently involved in the mass layoffs at The Sporting News. He’s been featured and had bylines with multiple publications in the past, and ESPN featured him in their #WrestleRank list earlier this year.
It’s always a positive to see someone land on their feet, so a tidy congratulations to Hale for landing with ESPN. The network appears to want to add more credibility and a bit more punch to its MMA coverage, so a hire like Hale’s only makes sense in that regard. You also wonder whether Combat Sports will also extend to pro wrestling. Hale has spoken and discussed pro wrestling at length, and ESPN’s editorial hasn’t been shy about using pro wrestling either.
UFC 300 is an ESPN+ PPV event. The historic event will air on Saturday, April 13, with the main card starting at 10 p.m. Eastern. It will be headlined by a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship fight between challenger Jamahal Hill and champion Alex Pereira. The prelims will begin two hours earlier at 8 p.m. Eastern and will also air on ESPN+.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022