Conor McGregor is biggest pay per view television draw in UFC history. Floyd Mayweather is the biggest PPV draw in boxing history. Bruce Buffer is the Voice of the Octagon. Michael Buffer’s “Let’s get ready to rumble” was born in boxing and has transcended it.
McGregor is going to box Mayweather, and it only stands to reason that Bruce announces ‘Notorious’ while Michael announces ‘Money’. During a recent interview with TMZ, Bruce welcomed the idea.
“I mean, if you ask me ‘Would I love to announce the fight?’” said Buffer. “If you remember, in Pacquiao and Mayweather, my brother, Michael Buffer – whom I managed for him to be in the ring – and he was there along with Jimmy Lennon Jr. And Jimmy introduced Mayweather and Michael introduced Pacquiao.
“Well, depending who’s promoting this pay-per-view, is it Showtime? Is it UFC? I mean, who are the powers that be calling the shots? Then we’ll see. I mean, I would love to announce with my brother, Michael Buffer. That would just be an incredible thing to do and we’d have a blast working together.
“Just like this fight, there’s a chance for everything. If you wanted to ask me if I’d like to do it? Of course I would, why wouldn’t I?”
Bruce and Michael are half brothers, and as each is at the top of his game, it is easy to imagine them growing up together and practicing, like the Gracie family. However, the pair did not meet until Bruce was 30 and Michael in his 40s.
Bruce knew Michael from his announcing on television, and the unusual name in common; one day he asked his father about it.
“It was a good thing he was the one driving, instead of me, when he told me what he told me,” said Buffer to SI’s Jeff Wagenheim. “I had no idea he’d been married before marrying my mom, much less that he’d had a child. I was, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I mean, I’m not 12, I’m not 8, I’m not 2, I’m 30, and I’ve already got my life going on a path. Where do we go from here?”
Where they went was among other places Bruce getting a trademark on the phrase, which went on to drive over half a billion dollars in products. It would be fitting in the extreme if they came together at the largest PPV in history.