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Opinion & Analysis
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Staff Editorials
HYDEN COLUMN: What's up with all of the odd quirks MMA announcers have?
By Frank Hyden, MMATorch columnist
Mar 11, 2008, 17:50
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What's up with all of the odd quirks MMA announcers have? Not that odd quirks are contained solely within MMA events. I could write an entire article and then some just about Teddy Atlas, who I do happen to enjoy, by the way. Not to mention some of the announcers in football, basketball, baseball, etc. But this is an MMA column, so it'd probably be best to stick with MMA announcer quirks. I do want to make clear, however, that I'm not doing this column in an attempt to maliciously rundown any of these announcers. For the most part I like these guys; I'm just pointing out little things they do that are kind of odd, in my opinion. Let's start first with the men in the octagon doing the introductions.
Joe Martinez handles pre-fight introductions for WEC and has announced all over the country for various organizations, including many boxing events. He's got a recognizable voice and knows his craft. However, he has this habit of saying such things as, "Weighing in at 145 ready pounds..." What does that mean? I suppose the inference is that the fighter is ready to fight but still... it just sounds weird. Couple that with his used-car salesman voice and you've got the stereotypical fight announcer. Whenever I'm watching WEC I half expect him to say, "I can get you into this '94 Buick LeSabre for only 800 ready dollars!"
Bruce Buffer is the voice inside the octagon for UFC and, depending on who you ask, is even more famous than his half-brother Micheal. The main complaint I personally have with Bruce is his penchant for saying things like, "Referee Joe Blow has called a stop to this bout at 2:39 of the very first round..." The very first round? What's that? Do we really need to have that differentiated for us? Is anyone in danger of confusing the numbering of the rounds? Does Bruce get paid by the word?
Joe Rogan has an extensive resume, much too long to list here. The guys knows his MMA, though. Or, at least, he knows the ground-based grappling and submission parts. As for the stand-up area...well, let's just say I wouldn't trust him to be my boxing coach. But I'm here to discuss his announcing. For the most part I believe Joe does a very good job, especially when it comes to explaining what's going on when the fighters are on the ground. Doesn't make me like it, but at least he's explaining the strategies. I also appreciate his enthusiasm, even when he does step all over Mike Goldberg's play-by-play. But that enthusiasm does lead to some mushmouth from Joe from time to time, as he stumbles over his words in his apparent excitement. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as he still stumbles over his words sometimes, even during boring parts of the fights.
Another reason I list Joe here is his constant overselling of grappling and submission fighting. His comments about even the least exciting aspects of ground-fighting being more exciting than the best parts of baseball are just... they're stupefying, to say the least. I'm not even that big a baseball fan and I think that's a dumb thing to say. I know he's just trying to hype up ground-fighting and stuff, but he destroys his credibility when he says things like that. And if he actually believes that then he needs to get his brain re-wired as something is seriously wrong up there. I know a guy who loves ground-fighting and even he said that's a crazy thing to say.
Jay Glazer is a Fox Sports sideline reporter who's done some announcing for various MMA shows over the years. I believe he's also done some BJJ training, although his apparent lack of knowledge of MMA makes me question that. I remember one time watching a show he was commenting on and he was trying to punk out one of the fighters there for tapping to a heel hook. I may not be a submission expert, but I do know for a fact that the heel hook is very dangerous and can do some major damage unless you tap. For reference, I believe his comments were on a Showtime event. It's just weird to hear Glazer say the things that he does because he comes across like a frustrated wannabe fighter. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not but that's how he sounds to me and my friends. I've also had enough of his Frank Trigg is bald jokes to last me a while. I don't know, maybe it's a part of the Bald Brotherhood that I don't understand.
I don't want to spend too much time on some of these other guys because it's not so much their announcing that has the quirks but... it's quite a trip to see Mario Lopez and an octagon in the same frame. I know he's had some BJJ training and was an amateur wrestler in school but still, seeing Slater in the octagon is weird. And Bas Rutten... I like Bas, but the dude is out there. I find his commentary very interesting and he's got a litany of one-liners that have cracked me up over the years. And who can forget that classic Youtube remix of his Street Defense video? That's all-time classic stuff there. Check out the Youtube clip if you haven't seen it before, it's awesome. The guy's just hilarious, I love his commentary almost as much as I loved watching him fight.
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