As I’ve previously indicated, Bill Goldberg – while a fan of the sport and a decent guy – is an absolute disaster of a commentator.
To say his presence cheapened the product would be a charitable understatement. When he’s not fumbling for words, he’s incompetent. And when he’s not incompetent, he’s downright rude. For him to say on national television, to the crowd in attendance and Rafael Feijao’s face that he should just watch the replay and not talk because his English wasn’t good enough was painfully embarrassing notwithstanding the fact that Feijao’s English was – GASP – perfectly understandable.
He’s also less than artful in handling situations on the fly. His bullying of Yves Edwards after a tragic loss and awkward interview of Herman in the cage made we wonder how many times this man has to make obvious errors and mistakes before he’s taken to task by producers. Clearly they know he has no business in the commentary business, yet here he is, show after show. Why on earth does this continue to happen?
And while his delivery in pre-fight commentary is considerably smoother, it’s also infinitely more robotic. It is apparent to everyone he’s reading his lines and doing so without a great deal of delicacy. He is neither capable of clean improvisation nor scripted erudition, which leaves him in a very strange middle space of banal and hackneyed mediocrity.
The bottom line is this: find someone who can talk on camera and actually knows something about MMA. Keep Goldberg for the “Toe to Toe” segments (he is quite excellent there) and either allow Mauro and Quadros to do the job themselves or find someone who can compliment their skill set. Bill Goldberg is clearly not that man.
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