Warner Brothers called Buffer about doing a spot on “Friends,” the NBC sitcom megahit, for the episode “The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion,” which aired on May 8, 1997. The company wanted to see a tape of Buffer, which he supplied. Warner Brothers liked his charisma and the striking way he belted out the fighter’s names. This confused Buffer. Here he was good enough to be considered for “Friends” and the budding UFC would not call him back? Something did not seem right with that picture. Buffer landed the gig, along with UFC fixtures McCarthy and David “Tank” Abbott. They worked with actor Jon Favreau, playing a love interest of the Monica character.
The Toukon Slap and Staring Down the Barrel of an Angry Man
Buffer was invited by legendary Japanese pro wrestler Antonio Inoki to announce Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 on New Year’s Eve before 40,000 fans at Kobe Wing Stadium in Kobe, Japan. With his great grasp of history, there was no way Buffer was going to refuse. However, the experience resulted in an interesting experience he shares. Inoki performs a scared fighting ritual called “Inoki’s Toukon slap” or “Fighting Spirit” slap, where you stand in front of the hulking legend and he slaps you with his right hand across your left cheek.
“It’s something Japanese fight fans are dying to receive, honored to receive, because a legend like Antonio Inoki just slapped you across the face,” Buffer said. “Josh Barnett went into the ring an accepted the slap and Inoki hit him hard, so I’m thinking this is my chance to stand there and get slapped by Antonio Inoki.”
Inoki being a professional wrestler, Buffer thought he would pull the slap.
“He didn’t pull the slap. He shot my head in a 180-degree turn; he hit me hard,” said Buffer, laughing at the recollection. “I’m pretty good at taking a punch, and then what happened next was people started storming the ring. It wasn’t a cage. It was a ring. You had pregnant women, children, adults, older people, all waiting in line to receive the Toukon slap from Antonio Inoki. Usually, Japanese fans are very respectful, but at this point, it seemed like there was going to be a riot because they were storming Inoki, and I thought this was going to get out of hand.
“Inoki, ever the gentleman, took my microphone and said two or three lines, and it was like a parting of the Red Sea -- and everyone lined up in a straight line. For the next 45-plus minutes, everyone entered the ring and Inoki would deliver the slap. Then there’s this little pregnant lady, and he obviously tempered the slap based on who was in front of him, but this continued all night. These people were crying and smiling to be hit. I never saw anything like it in the United States. After he was done, he said a few lines and everyone returned back to their seats.”
If only the situation had been that civil six years prior at the first UFC event held in Japan. Kauzushi Sakuraba and Marcus Silveira met in the co-main event on Dec. 21, 1997 in Yokohama, Japan. What ensued was one of the oddest events in combat sports history. Silveira looked to be getting the better of Sakuraba, as he pounded him under a barrage of blows. McCarthy was the ref and looked on closely as Sakuraba suddenly fell to the canvas. McCarthy thought Sakuraba was out on his feet. In actuality, he was well aware of what was happening and tried to take down Silveira with a double-leg. McCarthy, incorrectly -- he later admitted to his mistake -- waved it off. Then all hell followed, with Buffer at the eye of the storm.
“John stopped the fight. Even John will admit he made a mistake, because Silveira hit him, but Sakuraba dropped to his legs for a double-leg takedown,” Buffer said. “In fairness to John, he thought Sakuraba was out on his feet. When I made the announcement, Sakuraba in a fit of rage got in my face and tried to grab the microphone out of hands. I thought he was going to hit me; he was really upset. I stuck my face out and shook my head side to side basically saying ‘No!’ No one grabs my microphone. At least I could hold my microphone.
“I think I’m 3-0 when fighters tried to grab my microphone,” he added. “In all seriousness, I pulled the microphone back and we’re waiting for the next fight, but remember, we’re in Japan. It’s a different attitude. It got to the point where people were threatening to leave the arena. It reached a point where this is the only time I ever saw this happen -- they went back in the locker room and decided that each fighter had to fight again, so they came back out again to fight. I just went out and did my same thing. They fought, and the fight ended in the first round at 1:51. The first time was considered a no-contest, premature stoppage. Two other fights took place and they fought again, and Sakuraba defeated Silveira by an armbar.”
In the main event, Randy Couture captured the heavyweight championship for the first time.
“It was a crazy night,” Buffer said. “I remember Randy Couture defeated Maurice Smith by decision, and when I was announcing Randy as the winner, my whole voice cracked. It was horrible. I’ll never forget that one. I was learning my craft. It was like someone grabbed me by the balls as I was saying Randy’s last name. It was ridiculous.”
Buffer would cross paths with Sakuraba again.
“A few years later, Kazushi Sakuraba and I were at an autograph signing together in California,” he said. “I’ll never forget this, and as I keep saying, these fighters are pure warriors. Sakuraba came up and bowed to me as a show of respect. It was his way of saying that he was sorry for what happened in Yokohama. I’m such a big fan of his.”
Battling Barroom Bruce
Some backstage occurrences will always resonate with Buffer. One tale that has stood the test of time came after UFC 13 on May 30, 1997 at the Augusta Civic Center in Augusta, Georgia. In the main event, Vitor Belfort stopped Abbott on punches in 52 seconds. The event was historic, as it marked the promotional debut of future UFC Hall of Famer Couture. That night later featured another future UFC Hall of Famer, Mark Coleman, but in a different way.
The UFC after parties were usually genial gatherings of fighters, trainers and team members rehashing the fights and having a good time. This affair took an ugly spin.
“I was talking to Tank Abbott and Robert Meyrowitz when Al ‘Stankie’ Stankiewicz came over -- Belfort’s trainer who was working with [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ show,” Buffer said. “I remember Tank slapped Stankie, and then, as if in slow motion, I see this fist flying through the air and it belongs to Wallid Ismail. He cold cocks Tank, who falls to the ground. All of a sudden, all hell breaks loose. It was completely like out of a movie. It might have lasted 20, 30 seconds, but people were flying over tables, tables were flying, glass was breaking over this and that. I got my back up against a wall because I didn’t want to be cold-cocked from behind. I want to be aware of three directions, not four.
“Then this one fighter comes up to me with his fist cocked back ready to throw a punch, puts his fist down and then goes, ‘Sorry Bruce,’ and runs right back into the melee,” he added. “It was hilarious. The fight calms down, order is restored, and then all of a sudden, Mark Coleman bursts in the room looking for some action. Everyone is telling him it’s over, it’s over. It was like a barroom movie brawl. It was hilarious, because no one was really hurt among all of the chairs and people flying. That’s why it’s a habit of mine that whenever I walk into a room, I look for the exits, whether it’s a restaurant or a hotel or a movie theater. I always sit with my back to the wall to protect myself and look for a safe spot. The misconception is that street fights are over in seconds and brawls like that don’t go on forever.”
The other near-dangerous happening that comes to mind for Buffer occurred at UFC 24 on March 10, 2000 at the Lake Charles Civic Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The main event was supposed to feature a heavyweight title bout between the late Kevin Randleman and Pedro Rizzo. While warming up and stretching backstage, Randleman slipped on the concrete floor and hit his head, knocking himself out. UFC 24 also featured the first televised appearance of Jens Pulver, but that is not what everyone remembers.
“It hurts to talk about Kevin, because that guy lit up every room he ever walked into,” Buffer said. “Kevin is in the main event and I’m getting to announce it when a voice in my ear tells me that Kevin slipped on a pole in the back walking out. He fell back on the cement and knocked himself out. Now we don’t have a main event. At this point in the UFC, we were drawing light audiences and we had about maybe 1,500 people in the arena.
“The PPV [numbers] were low,” he added. “We were taken off TV after the witch hunt by McCain, except for DirecTV. With that being said, I get this call that Kevin can’t make it out. Now I have to tell the crowd, which was a rowdy crowd, that there’s no main event. I’m waiting for the rain of bottles and cans, because these people were not happy. That was a very weird happening back then. I was the messenger, the face of this with the mic in his hands and I have to announce decisions that are so ridiculous that you wonder what the judges were looking at, but I have to keep my professionalism and do my job, as every announcer has to do. You do your job, you run for the bus and get the hell out of there. That’s what I did that night, because people were really ticked off.”
Fighters and Fights Will Never Die
Through time, the fights have become jumbled in his Buffer’s head. He has known so many great fighters and seen so many great fights. What keeps him energized, what constantly sparks him, is the thought that the next fight he sees will feature something that he has never seen before.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a number of those experiences, just watching Randy Couture coming in as an 8-to-1 underdog and coming out of retirement to fight the heavyweight champion at the time, Tim Sylvia, [at UFC 68] and within seconds putting this big giant on his butt with a single punch and then going on to win the championship back,” Buffer said. “When you realize this single-man achievement, it’s an evolutionary process where you see so much greatness you have to do nothing but to respect these great fighters. It’s you and him. That’s a single-person moment, and some of those moments are just phenomenal. Even witnessing Holly Holm as a 20-to-1 underdog to the great Ronda Rousey and how Holly won that fight and how she handled herself afterward. These warriors give their just due, and Ronda brought in new fans to the sport and the crowds she brought are opening new doors to more fans. The sport was only created some 20, 25 years ago.
“It’s impossible to say the greatest fight I ever saw, because there are so many,” he continued. “There was Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson [at UFC 139]. Again, it’s not really fair to pick one of the greatest. I will say the greatest fifth round I ever saw was at UFC 195, between Robbie Lawler and Carlos Condit, and probably the 2016 ‘Fight of the Year.’ Rua and Henderson was incredible; you have Lawler and Rory MacDonald. When you fight Robbie Lawler, he has a tendency to put on incredible performances and he’s been in the sport a very, very long time.
“I think it’s why I do what I do,” Buffer added. “After seeing Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock [at UFC 40], you have to get excited. Go back to the old days when they didn’t have five-minute limits, when Randy Couture beat Vitor Belfort by TKO at 8:17 into the fight. Can you imagine fighting for eight minutes, 17 seconds in mixed martial arts? These fighters possess every single ounce of fortitude that they can throw in; their hearts [are] a mile wide. They just kept fighting without thought of the damage they are taking and the damage they give. They have a complete warrior’s spirit, and I believe there is such a thing as warrior spirit when it comes to fighters. Knowing what these guys put out, knowing the blood they spill and heart they fight with, I owe them at least as much in what I do.”
Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.