BRUCE BUFFER – IT’S Time! “THE VETERAN VOICE OF THE OCTAGON”

We are joined today by an absolute legend. Not too often. We get to say that.but originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bruce Buffer has been electrifying crowds in the UFC since 1996. His catch phrase, its time is known by millions from around the world. The veteran voice of the octagon has also dipped into a few other projects, which includes.

run gg

Creating his bourbon brand and energy drink and more, he’s also an author and a fellow podcaster, hosting the its time podcast. Can’t wait to talk about his fascinating life and career with the man himself, Bruce. It’s an honor. Welcome to the RUN GPG podcast. Thanks so much, David. I appreciate it. And by the way, that was a very nice introduction.

I like it, as they saying goes checks in the mail. Yeah, fantastic. Well, like I said,really excited to talk to you today because besides obvious reasons, you know, 26 years as the veteran voice of the octagon, you’re also an entrepreneur, an author, a podcast, or a branding and marketing expert, which we’re obsessed with.

So there’s a lot to unpack so many places we can start, but. Do you mind taking us back to the beginning? How did you become the voice of the UFC? Do you mind taking us back to 1996 and tell us the story of how you landed your first gig as the announcer and how that eventually led to that incredible 26-year career.

I appreciate that. In a long story, cut short. A lot of people know, and others don’t know that, the legendary announcer Michael B, the let’s get ready to rumble. Announcer is my long-lost half-brother. And I met him at the age, roughly around 28 years old. When he came out on TV, when Mike Tyson was.

That most talked about athlete in the world and boxing was the water cooler conversation on a Monday, almost every week with the great fights that happened. And Michael was more popular than the boxers and Audi came saying his famous phrase and boom, I, I got an epiphany like who is this guy? You know, because I never saw the name Buffer ever put on a screen or in a phone book.

And I own telemarketing companies back then before the internet, I saw every phone book in the, in the country, never saw my last name. As a lot of us back then would look up our last name and see if there’s anybody in there. So with that being said, eventually. I had my dad call an event that he was doing in LA and left a message for him.

And they got together for lunch. It turned out to be his long lost son that he hadn’t seen since he was two and a half years old. My dad was briefly married during world war II. When he went over to do his part in the Pacific, he came back in a divorce ensued, and a child was born and Michael was raised in the foster name of Huber until,he went in the army at 20.

He was never formally adopted. And they said, your name’s not Michael cuber. It’s Michael Buffer. And that’s the name you gotta go by? Well, had that not happened that fork in the road, we wouldn’t be having this conversation because when I met Michael event four years after I met him, I took over, I became his manager.

He didn’t have a manager, he didn’t have an agent, he didn’t have anything. And,I’m the businessman in the family. I I’ve had my own company since I was 19. And right around that time around 32 or so, I basically sold two companies. And, those two companies I sold, I was making incredible money living on the beach lifestyle of two and a half men modestly alcoholism.

You know, I was Charlie sheen, but you know, not. Drunk every night. And,I was loving life, but I, I was so burned out on what I was doing. So I sold both companies. I took over his management and then the UFC came on the scene and my job was to put my client in every big event. There is my whole goal was to make Michael not just the boxing announcer but to put him in every form of sports and entertainment, which I did.

And then I put him in the UFC. And after the first UFC, we had such a big contract with w CW wrestling, which wanted you to think at the time when whole Hogan punched you 20 times in the face, that was real, right. Well, if it was your face, it would be matched potatoes. Let’s, let’s be real. Right. So I got Michael in that and, he loves wrestling and then he did UFC.

I got a call on Monday because they’ve had him say in the UFC, if it’s not in the octagon, it’s not real. Well, I knew I was gonna get a call from w CW after that. And basically said, what are you doing? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, listen, this contract allows him to do this, but I got a three fight deal. He won’t be able to continue with as much as he’s working for you and boxing.

So let him finish his three UFC fights. And there you go. So he finished him and then I called the owner, Robert, my, and I said, Robert, you need a Buffer in the octagon. I’ve got the media contacts. I’m used to talking in front of people. I’ve only announced one time, which was a kickboxing fight, but let me be the, let me be the OC gun announcer.

Let me show you what I got. I’ll help you build this brand, which is what I am. I’m a brand builder and a marketer, and I proved it already, but I proved it even since then with my work with UFC and my own brand, its time. And it fell on deaf ears.so I got a videotape from a fighter named Scott, the pit bull Zo, and just a monster tank Abba type fighter, you know, six one hands down to his ankles, you know, 340 pounds that kind of guy.

Nice guy too. And, I became his manager and I did it for a reason. I didn’t wanna manage fighters, but I, I got him into UFC eight and buy him on Puerto Rico in,February 16th, 1996. And Robert Myer was agreed to put him in. And part of the deal was as a manager, they fly you down. So I put my tuxedo in the bag, flew down and convinced Robert my the night before the show to let me do the prelims.

I did the prelims thought I did a good job. Look back on it. Now it’s like, is that really. But we all have to start somewhere and, then they did not call me. And then they called me for UFC 10 telling me that the announcer at the time, rich G man groins uncle was passed and he needed to go to the funeral.

So could I be in Alabama in two days and another side of the story, which I could deep into in my book, because my mom had had a serious operation and I was all about, I’m all about my family, but my mom looked at me like Rocky’s wife in the, in the hospital bed, you know, and she put her thumb up. She goes, that’s the call you’ve been waiting for.

You gotta go. You gotta go. So Rocky music takes off. I fly to Dothan, Alabama. I do the show and, Thought I did a good job. Get back. Hey guys, am I the announcer? No, we hired somebody else. Right? They hired another guy, a friend of the producer. Well, his, his name I think was Manny Garcia. Excellent voice nervous in the service, screwed up a couple names, gave me the fodder to call back, say, Hey guys, come on.

You know, let’s do this. Nothing happened. Then I get a call saying, Hey, do you want to be on the, the Warner brothers TV show friends? And I.yeah, why not? and they said, well, they’re gonna come over and pick up some videotape and audio of you and they’ll let you know. So cuz what happened is they were doing this show called the ultimate fight champion.

I think it was or a variation thereof and they wanted the real announcer. Right. So they called me up. They said, you got the job. You’re gonna co-stars yourself. Come rehearse tomorrow morning. And Tuesday film all day, Wednesday, I called the owner. I said, look, Robert, I got the job. I’ll be there. Gonna do this for you.

Gonna do it for me, cuz obviously I’d love to do it. But I need to talk to you on the set. So we met for lunch and,I basically said to him, I said, Robert, I feel like a girl that’s waiting to be asked for the prom. I’ve been after this job for a year and a half people that don’t even wanna talk to you.

They’re scared of the name, ultimate fighting. You know, I’ve got the context at Jimmy Kimmel at Jay Leno at tonight’s show ESPN, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, let me, let me do what I can do to help you build this brand. But I gotta grow as the announcer best poker hand I ever played incredible my job. And then I announced every fight from that point.

Well, what an audition tape that is. I remember that episode of friends actually. I do. Yeah. fantastic. I mean, that’s, that’s crazy now, Bruce, along the way, you know, you’ve had some incredible experiences and seen some incredible things. You’ve been a part of those historic matches and events off the top of your head.

Can you tell us the most memorable events or matches that stand out at the top of your, mind something that’s maybe particularly special over the last 26 years? You know, I give you example of a, of a couple. I’ve seen every fight. I’ve announced every fighter. I’ve probably forgotten more than I can remember.

That’s why I wrote the book. It’s time. It actually brought back memories of all the great experience I’ve had. My work is built on passion, but my passion Wayne announcing the way I do. I just don’t phone it in. I put my body everything into it. I’ve given my, my knee, my back. I’ve given everything to UFC and I’m not even, I’m not even fighting.

But, my passion weighs that I’m gonna retire, but what keeps my passion moving is the great events. So you have, like, for instance, UFC 100, which was one of a turning point event, you know, and that’s where Joe Rogan egg beyond to do the 360 for like eight months. And the fans, like beyond the internet and here I am, you know, going in and.

Jumping and doing 360 in the air landing in front of Brock Lester and pulling it off and, you know, appeasing the fans and Joe and everybody. I mean, that was a great experience for me at that time. Oh, you can go back to the night that I blew my knee in the octagon, which the reason that was memorable was not just because of the pain I went through and blowing my severing, my ACL, but it was because we had the show that was the biggest show ever sold out in like 17 minutes in front of 55,000 rabbit Canadian UFC.

Interesting enough that was caused because I was in a poker tournament the week before. And when I got up during the break, I hit a dip in the carpet and I rolled my ankle, my ankle swelled up. I couldn’t even walk. I had to hop out of the place, went to the hospital. The next morning, got blood taken out like a jar.

And then when I crutches back to the tournament, took third place and one $30,000. But the problem was I couldn’t stand on my. That the biggest show is coming up with 55,000 people. It’s on a Saturday and it’s Wednesday. And I can’t even walk on my leg. Finally on Thursday, I can start to walk and I make it through the airport and I get to the show and, and I jump and I turn and I do everything I do in the show.

And then when George comes out, he, he lunges out when I say his name and I always bunny hop back about a foot and a half. And when I did my bad ankle wobbled and it caused my knee to explode, but I didn’t. That was interesting, but you, and the interesting part is you guys went through rehab together, cuz he.

Towards ACL as well, correct? Two months later. Yeah. He tours ACL in training. I waited three months to get operated on because I had to film a movie called here, comes the boom, and I had shows every weekend. So I just braced it up and worked without an ACL for three months and trained like an animal to strengthen my leg and went in and got replaced.

And four weeks later when I should have been still resting and, four weeks later, I’m in Philadelphia doing a little Buffer light, but I’m. Braced up and doing my job. That’s just the way I am. You know, they’re fighting, man. I’ve done this show with a hundred, four-degree temperature blown out back, laryngitis, you name it, but that’s not for me to complain, you know?

Yeah. So I just go do my work. Other shows. You know, you, you go to the time we went to Abu Dhabi, you know, for the first time, or when we went back to Brazil, you know, when we opened certain countries, every show has its own flavor in its own memorable moment. Another thing is, if you ask me what’s the greatest fight or the best fight I’ve ever seen, these are impossible questions for me to answer.

All I can do is, like you said, give you samples and examples. Of great fights. Yeah. Coming outta COVID going live again in Jacksonville. Yeah. Like, like we say, the most memorable, memorable events, right? Like what stands out in your mind? It’d be tough, you know, 26 years of, of, of calling it. well the, the other thing too, David, I’m sorry to interrupt you is the fact, if you just take the last year of events, even just this year, the events have been amazing.

Every time you think you’re gonna see the best fight. You see another one, right? It’s nonstop entertainment. The UFC’s a rocket ship going uphill. And I got a first class seat and I love it. A thousand percent. I’m gonna ask you about the brand in a minute here, but I, it reminded me of something. Not the first time you’ve been injured outside of the ring.

If you’re comfortable talking about it, the elevator fight. If you’re comfortable telling us about it. Cause to me, this was a, I love this story. I don’t know why. I just, I really like this story. Do you mind telling us what happened? No, not at all. For those UFC fans watching who belonged to fight pass, watched the, the UFC show, UFC folklore, Dana called me up after they made this show and he’s like, buff, this is the best thing we ever did.

Where do you see this? I go, what is it, Dana? He goes, I, I got, I made it about the trig fight, you know? And it’s like, Okay, Dana. You’re the reason everybody knows about it anyway, but okay. I can’t wait to see it. Right. What happened was we were in Vegas and we were doing an ultimate fighter show and we were in Vegas for a week to do two shows.

So this were the first show we finished. I go to Mike Goldberg’s room, Frank Triggs in there. We’re all buddies. We have a drink. We’re gonna go out and have some dinner. I’m gonna go to a club later, the usual Vegas routine. And, we go to the elevator on the 10th floor of the hard rock hotel and the door’s open.

And there’s. And a security guy, Tom. So the doors are open. We walk in doors haven’t even closed yet. Frank’s asking Dana who recently Frank was, had exited from the UFC. They let him go. And he is basically saying like, you know, when are you gonna put me back in the OCCU on it basically asked him for a job.

As Frank said, in his interview, Dana had a special watch on. I really love the watch band. And I leaned over and I looked Dana, what a watch. And when I leaned over Frank being over here, Dana against the wall doors have not even closed yet. I get a rich hand to my throat from behind. And it’s like, what?

Right? And I turn around and Frank hit me from behind. He chief shot me, which basically by modern day standards called assault. Right. And I said to Frank, I said, Frank, you hit me. Why the F did you hit. He said the wrong thing. He said, what are you gonna do about it? And my street kicked in and I just went pop, pop, you know, it’s like, Hey, nobody puts their hands on me.

I don’t care who you are. I mean, you can put your head on my shoulder, but don’t hit me in the throat. So, I, pop Frank and it was on doors closed and. Dana’s appealed against the wall and Frank and I are going at it and we get down to the bottom. I mean, what’s 10 floors, maybe a 32nd, you know, elevator ride, whatever.

And, we’re, we’re going at each other. And then the door’s open and I put my hands in the air said, Frank, we’re done. We’re done. We’re done. The reason for that was because in the hard rock in those days, they have all these glass encasements. We would’ve spilled out the elevator and probably gone through the glass.

And that could have really obviously been bad for us, but bad publicity too, for the UFC. So I stopped my sixth cents kicked in. I stopped and I had blood up and down my shirt. My. My thumb is peeled back. I can see the bone. I mean, you know, crap happens when you’re banging back and forth. And obviously, I cut my, my, finger on his belt buckle or one of the rings or whatever.

And, you know, we all, I’m laughing, he’s laughing, Dana’s laughing and you know, but then they see the blood on my finger and Frank’s like, oh no, no, no. And I said, guys, I’m good. I went to the paramedics. I go, can you glue it? Shut they go, no, you gotta go get stitches. So I go to the, the, triage, the emergency hospital in Vegas.

And I’m waiting in the doctor’s office. And I hear my voice announcing the fights in the next room on the repeat. And the doctor walks in with a clipboard. He looks up, he goes, what the, what are you doing here? Right. I told him and he $500 TEUs shot, six stitches, I think. And, then I went out and had a good time and, yeah.

Hey, it was a great night. I mean, I, I felt like I was 18. I announced the UFC and, got in a Ted 10 with, you know, one of the. Walter waits at the time and, in MMA and went out and did some dancing and, you know, partied with some girls and it’s like, Hey, I’ll do that tomorrow night. Yeah, I did. Again, I don’t tell anybody.

So two days later, Frank, Mikey Burnett, the fighter, Mikey Burnett came up to me, an Oklahoma fighter and, He said, Hey buff, I heard you took it to trig. You know, he goes like this. I go, Mikey, how did you hear? I’m not telling a he, because Dana’s telling everybody, okay? So that was it. That’s where that all stemmed from.

And then I had an interview with Frank eight months later on his show. We outlined it, spoke about it. And then on the folklore thing, they interview him too. So you can hear it from the horse’s mouth. It’s probably mind here from them.well, like we said, your life is not boring. It is fascinating. What a story?

I, I like the fact that Dana knows he doesn’t have a wimp pronouncing his fighters in the octagon, right? No, one’s gonna mess with you, right? I, you know, well, they might, they might, Hey, it can be beat on any given day. I’m not out to prove that I’m the toughest guy in the world. It’s just be a man. Don’t take crap.

Okay. Yep. I love it.

Gotta ask you about you. You brought him up, GSP. He’s our national treasure. First thoughts that come to mind when you hear the name, George Stier. Greatness, you know, to me, George is one of the goats of all time, you know? I mean, George is what, everything I love in a fighter. He’s my buddy. And will always be friends.

A fighter is not about the way you handle yourself in the octagon fighting. It’s about how you also handle yourself outside the octagon, because I’m all about being role models. Okay. We’ve got kids watching the sport. I don’t like when the fighters drop be bombs, we. An obligation to be role models, because in my opinion, worldwide, we live in a decaying society and morality, respect is being lost to each other.

Well, we can stand above that and be the amazing athletes they are. And me in the position I’m at, which is, I always try to be it from a point of class and shivery and, and be a gentleman. Right. That’s what George is one of the more interesting cast, but I just think greatness, you know, I, I love George.

He’s just a great. Yeah. I, it was funny. I, I hung out with him here. I, I ran into, I was, he’s smaller than I, he looks on TV. Right. He’s smaller. But he saw it as a rock. That guy, well, he’s a wrestler, you know, wrestlers have muscle upon muscle upon muscle. You know, it’s like people meet me and they don’t realize, you know, I’m basically a six foot tall Italian guy, right.

They think, I, they think IM either smaller or taller and I’m standing beside fighters at either weigh 150 to my 200 or weighed 300. 200, you know, it works both ways. Who are your favorite fighters to announce?again, samples. Okay. Chuck, Lidel never not low announcing Chuck Liddell, George St. Pier, Randy couture, because of all the meat behind his name, the former, the former, the former, the UFC hall of fame, octagon warrior, you know, you beg for those moments hamarta cuz the longer the name, the more exciting it is for me to announce it, the more difficult, the more I have to put on it.

It’s it’s names like Frank trig and Mike MWI that are the hard ones announced because they’re single syllable. Right? So you wanna draw them. Give me the longer name, the better, the more achievements that they’ve made, the better, you know, it just creates so much more emphasis as an announcer. We all love that.

I would assume the others do too to have the moment to really get in and create that exciting moment. But there’s certain fighters that create excite Milwaukee in, you know, obviously like con McGregor. I mean, the crowd goes outta their minds. So announcing Conor McGregor’s fights are very, very exciting.

You know, I’m an equal opportunity announcer. I want to give my all to every single fighter man and woman that walks in there with no impartiality, you know? And that’s just my job. Yeah. I appreciate that. Every night I walk out is my first night. I feel like I’m on an audition. I just got off an audition last Saturday night to prove Dana, the powers that be you, the fans, the fighters, and my mom that I ju I deserve this.

I think I, I think I did. Okay. Last Saturday and I’ll be back . That’s awesome.well I, I’m just gonna ask you about one more Carter McGregor. What, what thoughts come to mind? When I say his name? Here’s a parable. Okay. Connor started off and he had the chance to be, and I mean this, with all respect Connor, if you listen to this, he had the chance to be, and I I’ve been now spoken about this.

He had the chance to be the greatest role models, not in the UFC, but in sports. Okay. Came up for nothing in Ireland on well, Irish welfare, 150 euros a month, whatever it was wins a bonus. Takes off his dad’s suit that he wore multiple times to finally buy his own clothes, to grow into the multi multimillionaire, a hundred million plus, you know, 200 million, 300 million plus athlete.

He is walking today after he paid his taxes and his finesand, you know, it was just a role model for everybody, but then certain instances happened, right. Which you would never see George St. Peter do. Right. And that tainted his image a little bit or a. With some people and it’s like, I’ll give you an example.

My boys at the time were 11 and 13 and they loved Connor. Then he fought Floyd and they wanted to see the press conference. And I said, I’ll record it and I’ll be home and we’ll watch it. Well, when I get home, they were sitting on the couch with these weird looks on their faces and I go, guys, what’s wrong, go.

We watch the, press conference. I go, oh, I taken it away from me. How was it? He cursed a lot, you know? And it’s, they were so disappointed at the way he handled himself at that press conference. Right. And I was. That’s not the way you handle yourself and I’m sorry. I, I hate me for it. It’s the way it’s my attitude.

Okay. And then Connor rode that rail. He had to, this is the way he had to act. And then you had the, the attacking of the bus and the punching of the old man, you know, granted we all have a right to,recover and, and become better from our mistakes, but they just became like over and over again. It’s like, if that happens a lot, there’s a reason why that’s happening a lot.

You’re creating it in some way, shape or form that kind of. Then,when he fought,Dustin POY for the second time in Abu Dhabi, he went back to being, you know, polite and classy and, and everything. And I, and, and the, and the thing sold. Million plus pay per views. And it was a great, you didn’t have to do that.

Then when he fought him the last time it was right back to the O’Connor again. Okay. All right. That’s Connor. That’s why even in his hometown, I’ve been told by people in Ireland. And I don’t know if these numbers are correct, but basically like it’s almost like a heel in the, in the professional world of wrestling, half the people wanna see you win half the people wanna see you lose though.

All buy the pay per view. Well, he puts asses in the seats as they. And he makes a lot of money, but all I can say is Conor. I like you. I always have, but keep it classy, you know? Yeah. That’s an interesting perspective. And he did have an opportunity to be an incredible brand. Well, he is an incredible brand in one respect, but you know, people don’t touch brands when they don’t show respect.

Do you follow what I’m saying? Yeah, no, absolutely. I get that.okay. So I gotta ask you about the catch phrase. It’s time. I, anyways, it’s a bad knockoff, but it’s time. No, it was not bad at all. Come on. It wasn’t bad.where did it come from? Was it an organic, creation? Completely organic. The reason why is because every day I wake up.

 shaving whatever that morning period when you’re in the bathroom and looking in the mirror, I’ve always, I’ve been an entrepreneur, my whole work life. Okay. I’ve I’m, I’ve gotta motivate myself. I don’t have people. Sure. I have people saying great job or whatever, but I run my companies. I’ve gotta wake up and get the motivation to do what I have to do every day, which is much more than what you see me do in the octagon.

But that’s my choice. I do everything with passion. I don’t go to work. I live life by design. Everything I do is what I want to do. And I’m lucky to be in that position and monetize it. And I wish that everybody out there gets to follow their passion and earn their money, doing something they love. That’s the best thing in the world.

So I look in the mirror and I go, it’s time. You know, to have the best day I could have be the best I can be. And I used to start off the show saying, it’s time to begin the ultimate fighting championship. Right. And I didn’t say anything to the main event because I didn’t want to be Frank Sinatra Jr. I mean, I could have easily copied or tried to be like Michael Buffer, the great Michael Buffer.

And I didn’t wanna be, I wasn’t phrase driven to me. It’s not what I say. It’s how I. So then it got to the point about seven, eight years in Dana had me stop saying what I told you. I opened the show with, he said, I’d rather you not say that. So then when it got to the end, before the main event, I realized, Hey, the fighters have trained six to 10 weeks.

The, to be at this moment, the fans was sitting in the arena and watching on TV for five hours or more waiting for the main event. It’s time. This is it. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. And I just built it up from there and you can see how it, the evolutionary process of how it progressed, the way I set it, the physicality I throw into it, the passion I throw into it, how it’s evolved over the years, you know?

Yeah. To where it’s today. I love it. It’s it’s incredible. I had to ask you about it.you are an entrepreneur and you know, as time permits, I’m gonna ask you about the other projects you’re involved with, but what have you learned about entrepreneurship from Dana white and working with UFC? You know, if you look at Dana white, everything he’s done, he got into something.

That he really had little, but did have a lot of knowledge of his love fighting. Okay. But as far as being a fight promoter, he had to go through his evolutionary process. You know, they were down 44 million or whatever. It was 47 million. They create the ultimate fighter. They, Lorenzo says in so many words, Dana find a buyer.

Right. Finds a buyer for seven and a half million ready to take a dump. No, they don’t. They, they, they put like 40 some million dollars into the ultimate fight or whatever the scenario was. And it became a huge hit with the, with another great moment in history that I should have said earlier, which was the Stephan Bonner forest Griffin fight.

Where we got like a, up to a 12 to 15 share on TV, and that really set us off. We made spike and spike made us. It was just simple as that spike TV. So you look at what Dana did and took the punches in the face, got hit and thrown to the canvas. As entrepreneurs do, do got up with his passion, started moving forward, like Rocky and punching harder than ever and, and making it happen.

Dana white is the true epitome of a Maverick. Okay. A Maverick businessman that even today being worth by guesstimation, a half billion to a, you know, close to a billion dollars with everything he’s done. Is still in there every day and available 24 7 to do what it takes to keep the UFC rock and rolling.

I mean, he sold this thing for 4.2 billion. He could easily sit back and retire with God knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars, but no, that’s what passion and being a Maverick, businessman and loving what you do is all about. So, if you look at Dana white, you see a true example of somebody you should take note from and learn from on the tenaciousness, the passion and the tenacity it takes, and the consistency it takes to do the battles and enjoy the successes and what it takes to make something like this work, the secret of success.

And I, I talk about this is my branding and marketing, you know, seminars or motivational speeches. It’s not so much the work. Yes. It’s work. You gotta work to get up there, but the real. Is when you make it and staying there, that’s where you really gotta, you know, you can drop anytime, just cuz you made it.

Don’t take it for granted because that can disappear like that tomorrow morning. Incredible.fantastic.gems there. Hopefully everyone’s paying attention. Is there. Anything, you know, now that you wish you knew before you started this journey, or is there anything that surprised you over the last 26 years that you weren’t expecting?

Well, I wish I knew that my knee was about to blow before I did the lip sync contest for the UFC one night before three UFCs in a row. And I wouldn’t have jumped and blown my ACL again to the point where I had to do eight hour days in a row. And the doctors saw me to lie in bed cause I have no ACL and one leg.

Okay. Maybe that would’ve been nice to know that I would’ve appreciated that very much.All kidding aside. And that’s not really kidding. You know, I, as the saying goes, I would love to be 20 years younger with the mind that I have today and the knowledge that I have today, but I would not give up anything for the I’m gonna be 65 on Saturday.

My birthday’s on Saturday. You know, look a day over 49, Bruce. Oh, thanks. I appreciate it. I’ll compare my body. I still got a six pack and an eight pack on a good day. I, I will compare my body to any 30 year old athlete, man walking, but inside there’s a bit of an rector set. Okay. I, I bet through a lot of battles of my life.

So all that kind of stuff, too, whether it’s surfing or the martial arts or the whole bit, I wouldn’t change anything. You know, I mean, part of the pleasure going through life. Experiencing and learning from those experiences and the pleasure of having those experiences, even the bad one. Right. So when I look back, I think more so I’d like to know that I, when I put that five figures and that stock and it tanked, I wish I would’ve known that before I put the money in, but outside of that, I wouldn’t trade anything in my professional career because I mean, working with my brother, I was at the, the flu game watching Michael Jordan, almost throwing up before the game and then sharing the, the parquet floor with him, celebrating the NBA championship at the end, you know, with him and Rodman and all, and, or, you know, watching Tyson fight, razor Ruddick, or Muhammad Ali fight.

I mean, I, I’m not. Wanna change anything? No, that’s the beauty of life. I wake up every day to learn something new and to experience something new. And I’m like, Glen, Gary, Glen Ross. I’m like Alec Baldwin, cuz I’m a salesman. Okay. I’m ABC. I’m always closing. Always be closing. Yeah. But I know how to do it in the right way where you sell yourself.

I’m not that overpowering salesman. I love it, man. I tell I don’t sell my products, sell themselves. I. Okay. That’s a, I that’s the greatest sales clip in, in movie history. In my opinion,

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Okay. I gotta ask you about, the bourbon and the reason why I’m asking you about the bourbon. I, I love bourbon. I’m a bourbon drinker. I love it. I can’t find punchers chance bourbon. There’s the bottle there. It’s a very successful project. Look at that. There it is. Screenshot it. Received a gold medal at 2021 San Francisco world spirits competition at gold and silver medal at the 2021 Denver international spirits competition in less than 12 months of its creations, obviously successful.

How did you get involved in that? What can you tell us about it? Well, dad, on what you said, we’ve won six gold medals three for taste three for design of the bottle and the bourbon spectator just called us the top five best sipping bourbon in America at the price range it’s at, which is the $30 $35 price range.

I came out with my barrel version, which is 116 proof. We have a thousand barrels and that’s a special edition. I’m coming out with a single barrel, 105 proof edition, next month. And,we had a 12 year reserve distance. We call it D 12 St. Distance, right? The distance, dude, look at that packaging.

Yeah, that’d be, that’s incredible. And that sells for 120. That’s sold out in two weeks. So BA basically we’re the, one of the youngest fastest selling highest rate of bourbons in America today. And we’re coming to Canada. I was just gonna say, can we get a Canadian distributor, please? We’re we’re working on it now.

We’re we’re gonna be coming to Canada. We’re gonna go into the UK and elsewhere, but here in America, it’s just knocking down. Doors is sound like crazy. And the way I got involved, I was filming a super bowl commercial for an attorney for his local area. And one of the, assistant directors. Relative my partner, Brad, who was creating this bourbon?

Well, I’ve always been a bourbon drinker and I wanted to have a spirit and I turned down a tequila and I turned down a Ru out of Brazil called KHA, cuz I didn’t like the product and above all, I didn’t like the business acumen of the people wanting to do this. And I’m all about being with the best business people.

and the best product, right? I never want to be, just take the money and run. Not that I haven’t done that in my earlier life, but I don’t have to do that now. I want to make sure I represent the best. And that’s what happened when I met him,Brad and my other partner in Beto who designed the bottle, they worked with, Sam Hagar’s, Kaba, WABA tequila, Campari, skinny girl.

Their success background is huge. So we got into it together. I’m a vested partner. I’m a partner in the company and. It’s going like gangbusters. I, I, when I tasted the liquid, it was unbelievable and it is unbelievable. It’s so tasty. And then the name punchers chances, everything I’m about I’m, I’ve been an underdog my entire life.

Like a lot of us are like all of us at certain points and one punch can change your life. And that’s the way I’ve lived my whole life, where there’s fighting my way out of a bar or fighting my way out of a boardroom or, you know, or, or fighting my way out of a, a ring. Fighting my way out of a big wave surfing to survive, whatever that’s what life takes, you know, so I love the whole concept and I went into it feet first, 24 7, and it’s been a great experience.

I can’t wait. I’m definitely gonna be shopping for that. As soon as the Canadian market opens up, I’ll be looking for that though. Your listeners can go check out, punchers chance, bourbon.com to see if they’ll ship. Absolutely. Okay. We’ll put it in the show notes. We’ll put it in the show notes.

Absolutely. Yeah. Punch chance. bourbon.com. I don’t know if you can ship it to Canada though. This is, well, this is my next baby coming out. What’s that? Tell us about that. This is the its time energy drink. Okay. Now this is gonna be considered, is considered if not the healthiest, one of the healthiest energy drinks on the market today.

Okay. It’s full of BCAAs. It’s full of vitamins at 200 milligrams of caffeine per can. That comes from green coffee beans, but there’s no Toine in here. Okay. That’s what they put in all the other stuff. And actually Toine is crap. You shouldn’t even drink it. It’s bad. Your body. There could come a point when the FDA actually Outlaws it.

That’s how it’s not good. You can drink two, three cans of this a day with no crash. Right. Absolute minimal, minimal minimal if any sugar, which would just be a sucrose, if anything, and kept low calories the whole bit, and athletes are loving it. We released it in, in England. It’s actually got my image on the back.

Oh wow. That’s a fantastic looking, package. It really is. Well along with this will be other about 50 other nutritional products coming out in line. And then the other thing I have coming out is my own, cologne and toiletry line, which will be released here in the next 48 weeks in America and in 40 countries, including.

And that is the,it’s time cologne. So stay tuned to my, my Instagram page. And again, I, I don’t mean to show so much, but I mean, I’m really proud of all this. No, let this listen, man. We’re here for you as well. So anything we can do to support put it, we got a big database, so we’ll make sure everybody gets the, gets this.

I appreciate it. You know, what you’re gonna do is you’ll be able to wake up in the morning. You’ll be able to bathe, you’ll be able to wash your face in your body with its time body wash, face your wash moisturizer, body spray deodorant. Then you can go out and you can start your day. You can have, oh, put a little, your cologne on smell like buff, and then you can, go out.

And if you get a little tired, take your energy, drink, enjoy that your vitamins and everything else. And at nighttime ended off with a little puncher chance. That’s what I call hashtag buff life. Listen that one’s personal for me. I take my, my grooming my hair the way I smell, I can tell. Yeah, very seriously.

Very seriously. I’m a candle, all that stuff. So I looking I’m with you. I could tell I would, you know, that term metrosexual, which means that, you know, man grooms himself or whatever. Yeah.I was metrosexual in my twenties cuz you know, the girls I was going out with were taking. Themselves for me, why don’t take care of yourself to the girls.

Trust me guys out there. They appreciate it. Okay. Yeah. That’s why, that’s why landscape hires me to do their commercial. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, my wife,you know, she, if it wasn’t for my wife pushing me either, you know, maybe my hair wouldn’t look this great, but it does.who does to your wife?

Yeah, exactly. Okay. What’s next for Bruce Buffer? Is there any other projects or anything else you want to tell us about? I mean, you, I mean, you’re not, I, I don’t know how you even had time for this interview. I get it. You got a lot on the go. What is. Well, what I’d like to tell everybody, I, I have a big announcement.

I’ll be making probably in the next six months. I can’t mention it now. Ah, damnit Bruce, it evolves. You’ve had people break big news, breaking news on the show and you don’t wanna do it. It involves cinema. So we’ll just leave it at that. Oh wow. Okay. We’ll be watching for that. Panini. Just released my. One of many trading cards about to come out.

And I I’m a collector of sports memorabilia, movie memorabilia and guns, and I highly recommend UFC fans out there. Grab UFC memorabilia, going up in price. Those cars that I hold in my hand sell for an average of like a hundred seventy five, two hundred to as high as $4,000. Okay. One of a kind card, the five cards that I make, the panini cards, I bought a case of the first UFC issue for 11,000 sells for like 15,006 months later.

They’re great investments. I have the tops cards from 2009. I pay $750 for a case they’re selling for 15,000. Okay. There’s a lot of value there.So the panini cards are one.the other thing is my company, millions.co millions.co. This is a company I created with some amazing brand or marketers out of Canada.

And,we basically started with fighters. You can go there and buy merchandise of the sh Shanko sisters, thug, nasty,it’s Arian Celeste, many, many fighters in UFC and MMA, and every other athlete walking from football, baseball,the NFL alumni has joined us MML major league baseball and what it is, I go to millions.co and I created.

With my partners so that the fighters, would’ve a way to make money outside of just the ticket on their, their paycheck on fight night. So now we can literally, we’ve created merchandise for them. Let’s say Derek,Lewis fights and goes, my balls are hot, right? Like he did in Houston. The next day we’ll have a, t-shirt ready to be sold around the world for Derek Lewis.

So just go to millions.com and check it out. And the show Shanko sisters, like they’ll have watch parties like Joe Rogan’s compan fight companion, where you can watch a UFC they’re not at, and they’re with you and they’ll answer questions and everything. So this is a branding site I created and I’m very, very proud of it.

And it’s growing huge. Very cool. This is why I was excited to talk to you about it because you’re not just a performance announce it, right. You’re you’re an entrepreneur, a true entrepreneur. So I appreciate that last question, Bruce.we’ve been talking about legacy a lot on the show when all is said and done.

What does the Bruce Buffer legacy look like? What do you wanna be known for? I want to be known for that. I always went out and gave it my best. I always gave it a hundred percent and I want to be respected for the fact that I treated everybody through respect and treated people that I wanna be treated and that they respect the fact that I have a three foot theory in life that I think people realize when they meet me.

I want everybody around me to be happy, healthy, and prosper. When I get hired for something I’m all about how can I make everybody at work with the most money possible? Cause I know it’ll all come back to me. I very have a very unselfish attitude, but a really short thing. I just wanna to be respected that I always gave them my all.

And I always treated everybody with respect. Can I tell you one more thing if I may? Yeah, absolutely. And again, your words, I really appreciate them. One of the biggest things business wise that I do. Along with everything else.when COVID hit. And even before I had a very huge video business where people want me to do championship introduction, videos, and audios of them as if they were in the octagon and I’m introducing them, or maybe it’s a birthday or the birth of a baby or weddings.

Businesses, all that kind of stuff. So at my website, bruceBuffer.com, you can go in there and we have a special order form, and you can send a script for anything you want recorded and it gets approved and we do it and we do ’em in front of green screens. We put images behind us and I have a huge cameo business.

I do a lot of cameos. So,when COVID hit, a lot of people went virtual and that business just increased like 400%. It was crazy, but my partner, Kristen and I loved doing him. I don’t charge the kind of money I could charge. I charge, you know, I have to charge, give partial proceeds to animal military and children’s charities.

And the thank you notes we get for weddings and birthdays, everything. It brings tears to our eyes sometimes. I mean, we’re ma we’re making people happy. You know, you gotta pay it forward a little bit.we live in a really tough life right now with everything going on. I love to make people smile and make people happy.

And of course I never thought I’d be a cheerleader and I became the ultimate cheerleader. So I guess I like to get people excited, too. Well, you made us smile today, Bruce. We really appreciate it. Valuable perspective and insight. Where do you want the people to go, to follow you, connect with you, your website, social, obviously, where do you want them to go?

Please go to, Instagram it’s Bruce Buffer. And, Twitter’s just app, Bruce Buffer. Yep. And, just go to bruceBuffer.com, but on my Instagram, there’s all in my bio there’s links to everything. Love that man, Bruce, I cannot thank you enough for your time today. Glad we can make this app truly incredible career.

Appreciate you the rest day.