Most MMA fans won’t remember a time before Bruce Buffer was the voice of the Octagon.
The ring announcer is a permanent fixture at UFC events and has been for the past three decades.
He’ll be on the mic calling the fights when Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight belt at UFC 313 on March 8.
However, the 67-year-old may never have gotten his UFC role without making a cameo in the legendary sitcom ‘Friends’.
Bruce Buffer played poker with the UFC after Friends appearance
Buffer’s boxing legend brother, Michael, announced a couple of the early UFC shows before a contract issue got in the way.
During that time, Bruce spent over a year trying to convince the UFC bosses he could fill Michael’s shoes.
The MMA legend made a couple of Octagon appearances on the mic but couldn’t book the gig full-time until he was offered the chance to play himself on Friends.
Buffer used the biggest show on TV to pressure the powers at be into making him the UFC’s permanent announcer.
“They call me and said, ‘Listen, we’re doing a show called Friends and the Ultimate Fighting Champion is the title of the episode,” Buffer said on Monday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show.
“They have a voice over but they wanted the real announcer, so Warner Brothers sent a runner down to my house to get audio and tape. And they hired me to co-star as myself on Friends.
“And I thought, ‘Okay. This is it. I saw [UFC co-creator] Robert Meyrowitz on the set. I said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to meet at lunch. I’ve got to talk to you’. I met with him and I hit him right in the face with it.
“This was the last time I was going to ask. I said, ‘Robert, I’m co-starring as myself in the biggest comedy on TV which is the biggest publicity you’ve ever had for the UFC’.
“‘I’m going to ask you one more time. I feel like a girl waiting to be asked to the prom and nobody is asking me to the prom. Let me be the Octagon announcer to grow with you and help you build this brand with whatever I can bring to the table. I don’t want anything for that. I just want to be the announcer and grow with you as a show’.
“It’s the best poker hand I have played, Ariel. That’s where we made the deal, and from that point on, I continue to announce the UFC.”
Bruce Buffer’s most embarrassing UFC moment
In a sport filled with carnage, Buffer has become the one person UFC fans can always count on.
Still, he’s not perfect, and there as been a few mistakes during his 29 years on the Octagon mic.
However, he rates one of them above the rest as the ‘most embarrassing’ moment of his career.
Buffer was on the call for a lightweight fight between Jim Miller and Pat Healy at UFC 159 in April 2013.
The fight had ended in a third-round submission win for Healy. Unfortunately, that was not how Buffer initially called the outcome, “Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced. “Referee Herb Dean has called a stop to this contest at 4:02 of the third round, declaring the winner by submission Jim Miller.”
Buffer immediately added: “Oh, excuse me, Pat ‘Bam Bam’ Healy.”
The rare blooper was met with a smile from Healy who gave a quick glance back at Buffer while getting his hand raised by Dean.
Buffer said when asked to name his worst moment on the job ahead of UFC 168 that same year: “I think we all saw earlier this year when I ruined my perfect record for the two gentlemen in the Octagon that had the slightly reddish beards, and I named the wrong winner in the Pat ‘Bam Bam’ Healy fight.”
As to why it happened, Buffer said, “I’m only human, and that was my one mistake.”