A Quarter-Century on the Mic with Michael C. Williams

Most fans of combat sports know Michael C. Williams as the longtime in-cage announcer for Bellator MMA. However, over the course of a quarter-century behind the microphone, his voice has enlivened sporting events ranging from MMA to boxing, racing and even monster trucks. Regardless of the sport in question, Williams stands out for the professionalism and preparation he puts into his work. Williams spoke recently to Sherdog.com, sharing anecdotes—including the little fib that got him into the business—and giving an inside look at the work he puts into refining and perfecting his voice and delivery.

Sherdog.com: I'm sure you've heard this question a thousand times before, but how did you get started as an announcer?

Michael C. Williams: August of this year I celebrated my 25th anniversary as a ring announcer. Aug. 23, 1995 was my first show. My hair was a lot blonder, it was a lot taller—I had a lot more hair in general! About 60 days prior, on June 5, George Foreman was doing a signing at a book store that doesn't exist anymore. He was on a local radio show in Chicago that I was listening to. Now, I was a huge Foreman fan and a full-time working stiff doing side announcing gigs and just getting my career started. So I decided to step out of work, meet George, buy his book and get his autograph!

As I was driving there, I kept listening to the radio show, and they brought on a guy named Bobby Hitz, who was a heavyweight boxer and had faced George Foreman during his comeback.



So Bobby was a local Chicago fighter who had fought George, got knocked out in the first round, but Bobby was spitting a nice story about it! Now this all happened on Danny Bonaduce's radio show (fun fact: Williams would announce Bonaduce's celebrity boxing match against Donny Osmond years later) and after talking about the fight, Hitz stated that he is the biggest boxing promoter in Chicago at the moment and he is promoting a show next month. So several hours later, I make it to the book signing, I buy George's book, and I'm standing in line when, a few rows ahead, I see a guy talking loudly while making boxing motions and throwing air punches, telling the story of when he fought Foreman. I recognize the voice; it's Bobby Hitz! I tapped him on the shoulder, a complete impulse, and told him I knew him. When he asked me how, I replied that I was a ring announcer. Bobby replied, “Yeah? Where have you announced shows?” I wasn't ready for that, because I hadn't, and it was a lie!

So I said that I had just moved from Iowa a few years ago, which was true, and that I had announced all the shows in that state. So as the line moved, I told Bobby, “Hey, why don't you give me your card and I can call some shows for you.” I didn't know what I was saying, I was just making it up as I went along! He gave me his card and he said “Yeah, give me a call.”

So I got a signed book by Foreman, which sits on my desk right in front of me to this day, and I started leaving messages on Bobby's answering machine, because he was screening my calls and knew I had lied. I kept calling for weeks, three or four times a week, and finally, he picks up on a Wednesday and says, “Are you ever going to stop calling me?” I said “Bobby, if I stop calling you, I got nothing, so...no!” And he said “Okay...come down to the Bismarck Palace on Friday, I'll audition you. If you're any good we'll talk.”

I agreed. I then went out and rented a tuxedo and called all my friends and told them to give me their VHS boxing tapes. I didn't watch any of the actual matches, I just listened to what every single ring announcer on those tapes were doing; the cadence, the information, A to Z, scripted it all out, rehearsed, practiced, and drilled my butt off for two and half days. I then picked up my rented tux, auditioned, and then I was his ring announcer from that point forward for the next probably ten years.



As someone who heard you in-person at Bellator 206 and 226, I noticed you were there for the entirety of the prelims, main card and postlims, well over six hours.

Well, that's the fun of it, right? (laughs) There are different philosophies of announcing. Some of my colleagues, they like to come in for just the main event or the co-main and have another announcer do the rest of the card, but that's not my approach or how I look at it. Before I go any further let me note that there is nothing wrong with this; it creates a lot of opportunities for other guys, including many of those early on in my career.

Working my way up though, including the back rooms of bars, I gained a very strong appreciation for the guys and gals that are 1-0, or making their debut, or fighting amateur, or is 0-4! They're probably not going anywhere in the sport if they're 0-4, but they're fighters, they went through some sort of camp and are stepping into the ring or the cage just the same as the main card fighters are. And I thought they deserved every bit of the same show, the same presentation, same introductions, same everything that the fighters in the main event were getting. So I never felt it was okay to leave early or come late.

As for the six hours, I've sometimes even gone over 10 hours when calling [Premier Boxing Champions]! They would only televise a few bouts, but the postlims would go past 2 a.m.

How do you keep your voice working for that long?

Along with MMA and boxing, I was also doing monster truck shows, professional beach volleyball, and marathons and triathlons. Working all of those different types of shows, there was a different strain on my voice and there were different requirements. So I would be doing these monster truck weekends, 2-3 shows in a stadium of 60,000, and I would fly back on Sunday with no voice. And this was the case for the first 10-15 years of my career. Eventually, I realized I couldn't keep doing this, so I began to study what Broadway performers were doing, because they're on stage 6 nights a week. So I learned about the fundamentals of voice; projection, vocal range, of caring for your voice, and especially breathing properly, which is probably 75 percent of it. So I began this self-study, looking at people with powerful voices and how they manage to maintain it. So for those cards that last 6, 8, even 10 hours, I'm basically gearing up ahead of time. I know my capabilities, how much I have, and am making sure I have enough, including the postlims. Even to this day, I constantly drill and try to expand my vocal range and tweak my own delivery. In fact, it was around 2008 when I was doing the Affliction shows that I finally went to a breathing coach, and that ended up being a breakthrough for my career.

Among the great contemporary boxing announcers, are you more of a Michael Buffer or Jimmy Lennon Jr. guy?

Great question! I believe that announcers should never copy or imitate anyone. While announcers coming up should look at those that came before and learn from them, which is great, just make sure you're not copying or imitating. If you fall short of that you'll be fine.

But personally, I look more at Jimmy Lennon Sr; he was the gold standard for 30 plus years! I think he modernized and made it a profession. Before him, there was never much importance attached to announcing. Jimmy Lennon Sr. brought along a sophistication, a formula, and presentation that for me anyways, he was the first to do. And Jimmy Jr is Jimmy Senior's son; he sounds and announces a lot like him. And if I've taken anything from him, it's the cadence and how concise he is. You don't get a lot of bombastic with him; just a solid performance and his cadence keeps you engaged.

Michael Buffer, from a technical standpoint, is about as perfect as you're going to get. He has a great deal of resonance to his voice, and it sounds very natural to me; not contrived and he never drops below his own vocal range to the corny announcer voice.

Besides Jimmy Lennon Sr., was there anyone else who had a major influence on you as an announcer?

I was always a boxing fan, so there, it was definitely Senior. I didn't know who he was by name for a long time, but I recognized the voice. My ear has always gravitated to the announcer. However, it goes much further than that; when I was a kid, whether it was Johnny Carson, Letterman, or Let's Make a Deal, any of those shows that had an announcer, I would gravitate to. And out of all of them, Don Pardo, the Saturday Night Live announcer, was my idol. Honestly, I'm not even sure I watched the show! But this is what led me down this path.

I noticed that you're very good at pronouncing a wide variety of foreign names and cities. Unlike some announcers, who simply wing it. Is this something that you study?

Total natural! Just kidding...no one who speaks American English is. Honestly, it's one of the most challenging parts of this job. I think it comes easier for those who can speak multiple languages, but in my case, I can only speak English, so it involves a great deal of time.

When we went to Italy for the first time a few years ago, I took a crash course via Youtube and other online resources in the language. I studied combined vowel sounds and all the do's and don'ts so that I had a fundamental base before our first shows. And once there, I'm sitting down with our Italian counterparts, fluent in the language, and working with them, having them correct me on my mistakes and learning the basics. And finally, I sit down with the fighters themselves. Oftentimes, we record the fighter saying his or her name, I slow the audio down, and listen to it, 5, 10, even 20 times to make sure that even the emphasis on the correct syllable, since that makes the difference.

I may not get them all right; in fact, I know I haven't, but it's a challenge I enjoy, and it's a process I go through to do as much as I can to get as close as I can.

You mentioned that some other announcers are winging it, and I find that to be unfortunate. The fighters deserve a lot more than that.

What is the most complex name you've had to call?

In general, and you can probably appreciate this, Eastern European names are difficult. Specifically Lithuanian. I've been told that there are sounds in the language we either can't make or aren't instinctive for us.

Also, before we started doing shows in Tel Aviv, Hebrew names were a challenge. However, once I put in enough time with some great people, some Israeli commentators that were doing the show as well on-site, the names are much easier for me and I actually enjoy doing shows there.

I imagine Hebrew would be challenging, seeing as how there are no vowel sounds, only consonants, and you're an announcer trying to project!

Definitely. I can only thank the commentators and their willingness to share. You have to find out those resources, and sometimes, people are happy to help.

I've always wondered why more announcers don't do play-by-play, since they clearly have the voice for it. Is this anything you've considered yourself, or would it interfere with announcing too much?

There actually are a few guys at the regional levels that do both. And I've done coaching with two of them, so I can tell you that there are inherent difficulties. One being that they're two completely different fields! Ring announcing is about how to be concise. It's also about building up the fighters, the network, and the promotion rather than one's own brand. And this doesn't translate well to commentary, where one is looking for their own voice, catch-phrases, and a very specific delivery. They're working on their own brand to a much greater degree than any announcer ever should.

Beyond that, the two guys I work with, while they might improve in one area, they tend to stagnate in the other. Interestingly, this hasn't been talked about much, but in recent years promoters have tried to get people who can do both positions so they can save money on the production side.

On a personal level, I listen to someone like [Mike Goldberg], [Jon] Anik or Jimmy Smith, and it's very different than what I can do.

One reason I ask too is that on the more regional level, play-by-play commentary tends to be dreadful. Since announcers can at least speak coherently, why not give them a chance?

It's funny, because I work a lot in boxing and MMA, and there are guys, whether announcers or commentators, who have the potential to be good if only they would put the time and effort into their craft. Of course, then I hear them years later and they're exactly the same! That drives me crazy.

I've done coaching and training for announcers for 10-plus years, and I have a class called “Can You Define Your Delivery?” with the byline “A true professional can!” And it's an exercise I will give to any announcer who comes to me. Namely, can you DEFINE your delivery in 90 seconds or less? Normally, I hear absolute silence. They ask me “what do you mean?” And I tell them “You're Joe Smith. How do I KNOW it's a Joe Smith delivery? Go!”

And what I'm trying to convey is that they lack self-awareness of what they're doing on the microphones because they haven't put in the time to practice, drill, and rehearse, and develop a voice that is actionable, that can improve and expand.

And that's why you hear so much bad commentary and ring announcing! Because those people haven't put the time in to sit down and to achieve that level of self-awareness to even formulate a starting point.

Any bizarre or memorable requests you've received from either fighters or fans?

(Laughs) Sadly, I can't remember off-hand, but there has only been one nickname in my 25 years that I couldn't announce. Everything else, even “The Ass-Kicking Machine,” Jason Jackson, I've been able to say. As for fans, this hasn't come back to bite me yet, but I do a lot of recordings on people's cell phones. One of the most memorable aspects of our shows in Tel Aviv is that there is always a big crowd at 2 in the morning outside of the arena. Every fighter gets mobbed, I get mobbed, and so I always get asked to do a bunch of recordings there. And so long as it's not derogatory, I'll say anything!