Issue 173

December 2018

UFC’s legendary announcer, Bruce Buffer, shares his memories of the Octagon.

If you look back to your first UFC appearance as an announcer, could you ever have imagined the heights it has reached today?

In all honesty, the reason I fought for this job, the reason I took the short end money and did all the travel and lost money for all those years was because I believed from day one that the UFC and the sport of Mixed Martial Arts was going to be the biggest thing happening in fight sports. I had that attitude from the very beginning. I have never lost it. It stayed with me and I knew I had to stick with it through thick and thin and its evolutionary process, hoping always that it would get to where it has.

What was it that gave you such confidence about the potential of the company?

I have been around boxing for some thirty years. I have been around fighting my entire life. I have been a martial artist since I was 12. I have been engulfed in this lifestyle. There is a UFC lifestyle.

When the UFC came on the scene, even though it was a spectacle back then, there was something when you first saw it, it’s like when a horse is born. You see it walk for the first time. It stumbles on its long legs but you realize that this is a magnificent animal that will grow into a champion. You have to nourish it. You watch it grow. You feed it. You teach it and do everything possible to help it grow up to what it eventually becomes. The early days were the early days and we can talk about it forever but when Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers took over the UFC, it reignited the whole feeling I had from day one 100 times over. The first night I had dinner with them after they bought it just reignited everything for me. It was a shot in the arm. For me, the UFC is a rocket ship going uphill for 23 years and I, luckily, have a first-class seat. I am looking out the window, enjoying the ride.

When did you realize you were playing such a significant part in the UFC’s growth and acceptance?

The thing about me, and you know me, is that I am very humble when it comes to the whole thing. The show is not about me. It’s about the fighters and the fans. I take my role so seriously and I am so passionate about it that when I step into the Octagon I throw every ounce of my passion and what I can give at that moment to the fighters, who are giving their blood, sweat and tears, that enhanced moment and take it to another level.

I noticed in the beginning that fans weren’t paying attention. It was like crickets when I walked through a hotel. We weren’t signing autographs or taking pictures like we do now. We had to earn that. There was a moment in Brazil, the first time we went back after the Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva fight, there were about 15,000 fans in the arena. I just got done announcing the main event and saying my ‘It’s Time!’ I am so focused on the fighters that I don’t hear the audience. It’s like tunnel vision. I am looking into the fighters’ eyes. That’s all I see when I am doing my work.

When I walked out, the great cutman, Stitch Duran said ‘Hey Buff, did you hear that? The whole audience said ‘It’s Time’ with you. I have never seen anything like that in my life.’ I went back watched it on TV and, Oh my God, that was a stellar moment where I realized that I do have a little bit of an impact. It was the highest compliment I could ever receive. We had 15,000-plus Portuguese-speaking people saying my words back to me in English. Aside from a child coming up and asking me for a picture or autograph, it was the most amazing moment for me. Again, the show, it’s not about me. I am just there to do the best job I can to enhance the moment.

What specific moments – good or bad – stand out for you from the 25 years of the UFC?

One of the low periods was when we were in Louisiana. We were playing to an audience of roughly 1,500 people. Kevin Randleman was fighting that night. I got word in my ear that Kevin slipped, fell and knocked himself out on a pole in the back. There is not going to be a main event. I was going to be the person to tell the fans that there was no main event. We were at our lowest point. We were taken off inDemand and DirecTV, so we went from being available in 80 million homes down to about 15 million homes. We are lucky to do 50,000 buys on pay-per-view. Here we are where we culminate with

the main event and we don’t have a main event.

How much worse can you get? I thought there were going to be bottles and cans flying into the Octagon. We had to get to the buses and get out of there. It was that kind of moment. That was probably the lowest point. I realized we were struggling. I was in New York at the SEG corporate offices slightly before that. Where there used to be numerous employees and action and things were rolling, it was a skeleton crew that day. At that point, I was really worried. It was shortly after that Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers, who attended an event earlier, bought it. I got a call from the owner Robert Meyrowtiz. He said, ‘I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I sold the UFC to Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers. The good news is they are keeping you and Big John Mc-Carthy.’ I knew we were at the low but we had a chance to go back up. The high point, I think for all of us, was the main event of the TUF 1 Finale when Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin fought each other. Joe Rogan said it was the greatest fight ever. I fell out of character and made the comment, saying you just witnessed the greatest fight ever in the Octagon. It was out of character but I just felt it. When you see Dana White hand Stephan Bonnar the contract with the one that Forrest won, I was like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited. You see me jump up and down. I am all about passion. I still have it. Nobody can tell me not to exude my passion. I will walk away if I’m told that. I know one thing, the moment my passion starts to wane, if I ever find myself phoning it in and just working for a paycheck, believe me, I will be the first one at the bank on Monday to cash the check, but if I find myself phoning it in that’s the day you will hear me make an announcement wherever I make it, that I am retiring. I have to work with passion and love what I do. I love the people I work with. You know how much I respect and how much I have busted my ass to do everything I can to help the fighters make as much money as possible. I’m just doing my little part. I will do anything I can do to promote the UFC. I have never stopped.

What has been the most memorable fight you have witnessed cage side at a UFC event?

I have seen so many thousands of fights. I can’t tell you one, I can tell you many. When Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in eight seconds. My jaw hit the table in front of me. Someone got a picture of me and it was all over the internet the next day. I don’t think I was the only one with that expression that night.

I could go back to the early wars. The early war between Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort. I could go on and on and on. That is the beauty of the UFC and our great sport. The moment I think I have seen the greatest fight I have ever seen then all of a sudden, I am seeing one of the greatest fights I have ever seen all over again. That’s why the UFC has a thing call the Hall of Fame and why they make thick volumes of history books. Every night we have a show we are creating history. That is the beauty of our sport.