PDA

View Full Version : verassend artikel over Bruce Buffer (speaker UFC)



Marco
08-04-2007, 05:56
HOUSTON (CP) - Bruce Buffer is living his own dream in the Octagon.
Buffer is the slick, animated announcer at UFC events. He's also the half-brother of boxing announcer Michael Buffer, known worldwide for his trademark "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" call.
Bruce Buffer has his own presence in the ring. Blessed with a booming voice, he can turn a name into a theatrical calling card. Randy (The Natural) Couture's last name, for example, becomes Coutuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure when Buffer is on the job.
It serves to whip up the already juiced mixed martial arts crowd, especially when Buffer bends low, and spins towards Couture - pointing to the fighter as the introduction rolls off his honeyed tongue.
Buffer, 49, knows how to work a room. At a television show, at a U.S. marine base in Miramar, Calif., in December, he scored points with the all-military audience by throwing out Semper Fi (the marine motto Semper Fidelis or always faithful).
He also has a sense of style. At Friday's outdoor weigh-in for UFC 69, the only people not feeling the heat under the bright Texas sunshine were the scantily clad ring girls. Buffer was in suit and tie.
As an announcer, Buffer is equally smooth. If you can pronounce Dokonjonosuke Mishima before a live TV audience, you can do just about anything. Phonetic spellings help, as do the backup cue cards in his hand.
Some names are easier than others to Buffer-ize. Matt Hughes becomes a billowing Huuuuuuuuuuuughes, in the hands of Buffer. But even he has trouble with the like of Mike (Quick) Swick.
"I love Mike. But his name Swick. It doesn't roll off your tongue," Buffer laments.
But give Buffer a shot at "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy Tito Ortiz" and the ensuing introduction is like a seven-course meal. "It's like magic," he says with relish.
For Buffer it's more than an introduction. It's a chance to pump up both the fighters and crowd. The way he sees it, his craft combines excitement, anticipation and even romance and flavour.
He has his own signature line, booming "It's Time" when the main event rolls around.
Mistakes are rare. But Buffer remembers a recent card when the director was in his ear, screaming at him to speed it up because the show was running late. Somehow Jorge (El Conquistador) Rivera came from Milford, Conn, instead of Milford, Mass.
Rivera greeted the gaffe with a pained face, but Buffer says they shared a chuckle later.
As one of the faces of UFC - "Just call me Bruce, because I'm a fan first" - the announcer is popular among the legion of UFC followers. In MMA crowds, it takes him a while to get anywhere, knuckling fans and shaking hands.

His first UFC gig was UFC 8 in 1996 in Puerto Rico. He was managing fighter Scott (The Pit Bull) Ferrozzo who was on the card and talked his way into announcing three fights on the undercard.
Three days before UFC 10 in Alabama, he was asked to take the microphone again after the normal announcer was called away due to a death in the family. He did it again at UFC 13, following a guest appearance on the TV show "Friends" with UFC fighter Tank Abbott and referee (Big) John McCarthy.
"I've been doing every one since."
He's only missing one - UFC 23: Ultimate Japan 2 in 1999 - and says the show has gone on other times despite 101-degree temperatures and wobbly legs. "There's no way I'm not going to be stepping into that Octagon."
The UFC used to account for 10 per cent of his time, but has grown to about 30 per cent, he reckons. Buffer has announced for other MMA organizations in the past, but is now signed exclusively to the UFC. With the UFC expanding to more than two dozen shows a year, that means trips to England and Ireland in the coming months in addition to a slew of U.S. shows.
"Where there's a UFC, there's a BB," he says with a grin. "I will be there."
Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships, recently purchased by the UFC, has its own announcers - including leather-lunged Lenne Hardt. But Buffer hopes - and expects - he will handle announcing duties in the planned "Super Bowl" of MMA cards planned by the UFC.
"I'm a workaholic, I guess you can tell," says Buffer, who also manages his brother's career. "I'm 24-7."
The Bruce Buffer calendar may be packed, but he wouldn't change a thing.
"Life is really good. ... I make sure I stay healthy because I want to enjoy this life."
A successful poker player, Buffer ranked 170th in the world last time he checked. He paid US$1,000 to enter an event in February, emerging 18 hours late with $50,000 after finishing third in a field of 470.
His father taught him poker when he was seven and these days he plays three or four hours a day, often on the Internet while taking calls and doing other business.
"My Dad taught me all about gambling and he taught me a couple of key rules. He said 'Win like you are used to it. Lose like it doesn't bother you. And the only way to follow the horses is with a shovel."'
Buffer steered clear of betting on the ponies but started playing cards for money when he was 13. These days he doesn't bet on sports and has pretty much given up on blackjack.
"Really all I do is play poker. Because poker you can control. You can make a living playing poker."
Buffer's background was diverse, but pretty much everything involved the gift of the gab. He had his own nutritional products company and was a motivational speaker. He's had his own company since he was 19.
Amazingly, he almost never met his younger brother Michael.
"Well actually up to the age of 32, I never knew he existed. I never knew I had a half-brother."
Bruce Buffer started wondering when he saw Michael announcing fights in the late '80s. Buffer isn't that common a name, "so I got weird feelings in my stomach when I saw we kind of looked alike and the last name. I'm like 'Wait a minute. what's going on here?"'
He started making calls and found out Michael was raised near where he grew up in Philadelphia. "There were too many similarities."
The brothers eventually connected. They share the same father with Michael the product of another marriage, raised by foster parents under another name. He switched to Buffer when he entered the army because that was the name on his birth certificate.
Four years after finding his brother, Bruce became his manager with his first order of duty trademarking "Let's Get Ready to Rumble."
"He needed to be marketed differently because he was more than just a boxing announcer in my mind," Bruce said.
"I told him after a show - it was Riddick Bowe-(Evander) Holyfield in '92 - I said 'Michael, there's so much more here. You should be doing NBA, NFL. I'm thinking video games, talking key chains and so many products.' He said 'How are you going to do that?' I go 'I don't know. I'll figure it out, but I'll make you richer and more famous than you ever dreamed and myself in the process."'
Today Bruce Buffer watches with an eagle eye when it comes to people borrowing from his brother's trademark line. He just got a cheque from a company that went with "Let's Get Ready to Bundle" on a billboard.
"You have to protect what's yours," Buffer explained.
The Buffer brothers plan has worked out pretty well, with the UFC giving Bruce his own announcing niche - although Michael handled microphone duties at UFC 6 and 7 and Ultimate Ultimate 95.
Bruce Buffer has homes in Marina Del Rey and Malibu, Calif., although he spends one to two weekends a month in Las Vegas because of work. The Marina Del Rey home is minutes from the Los Angeles airport, easing his considerable travel schedule.
Buffer drives an S500 Mercedes, with the licence plate TYM 2BGN (Time to Begin).
He's single, explaining with a laugh: "I've almost been divorced twice but never married."
Born in Oklahoma, Buffer moved to Malibu with his family at 15, after stints in Dallas and Philadelphia. The West Coast suited Buffer well, as did California girls, he acknowledges. He still surfs today and admits to being a "scrapper" as a youth and young man, at times becoming embroiled in "hardcore brawls" over surf turf.
Buffer has his own roots in mixed martial arts, studying since he was 12. He turned to kickboxing, getting serious about the sport, but quit on doctor's advice after a concussion.
He has favourite UFC fights, but not for long.
"Every time I think I see the best fight, another one comes along. That's the beauty of this sport. It's grabbing everybody because you just never know what's going to happen."
-
On the Internet: www.bufferzone.net

Jochem
08-04-2007, 22:21
das geen verkeerd leven.

Paganstars
08-04-2007, 22:32
wil wel ruilen met buffer! allebei de buffers!