Michael Buffer

Michael Buffer (born November 2, 1944) is an American ring announcer (or "MC") for boxing, professional wrestling, and National Football League events. Pioneering a distinct announcing style in which he rolls certain letters and adds other inflections to a fighter’s name, and known for his trademarked catchphrase: "Let's get ready to rumble!", he was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Early life Buffer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 2, 1944. Buffer's parents divorced when he was 11 months of age, and he was then raised by foster parents, a school bus driver and housewife, in Roslyn, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War at age 20 and served until age 23. He held various jobs, including a car salesman, then began a modeling career at age 32 before becoming a ring announcer at age 38. By 1984, Buffer developed the catchphrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" in his announcing, which gained enormous popularity. He began the process of obtaining a federal trademark for the phrase in the 1980s, acquiring it in 1992. Consequently, Buffer has earned in excess of $400 million with the license for his trademark.

In 1991, Buffer signed a deal with HBO and became a permanent ring announcer on World Championship Boxing and on occasion he would sub for Jimmy Lennon Jr. on rival network Showtime on Showtime Championship Boxing and Lennon would occasionally sub for Buffer on HBO as well.

In 2018, Buffer signed with DAZN to serve as the exclusive ring announcer for all of its boxing broadcasts, which include deals with Matchroom.

Wrestling Buffer was formerly the exclusive ring announcer for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) main events featuring Hulk Hogan or other top WCW talent until 2001, when the organization folded. WCW's former parent company Time Warner owned through their pay-per-view subscription division HBO, which broadcast many matches from promoter Top Rank, of which Buffer is the lead ring announcer. The exclusivity of his contract with WCW prevented Buffer from announcing for other wrestling-type organizations, forcing him to stop announcing for the UFC (his only UFC cards were UFC 6 and UFC 7). However, when WCW ceased to exist, and Time Warner had no more affiliation with professional wrestling, Buffer was enabled to announce in other wrestling promotions. During the Monday Night War, while Buffer was on WCW Monday Nitro, WWF wrestler Triple H created the phrase "Let's get ready to suck it!" to mock him, as part of his D-Generation X gimmick.

On Saturday Night's Main Event XXXV, for the first time in more than six years, Buffer returned to pro-wrestling ring announcing duties at Madison Square Garden in a boxing match between pro boxer Evander Holyfield (who was substituting for Montel Vontavious Porter) and pro wrestler Matt Hardy. Buffer appears in the Royal Rumble 2008 advertisement, in which he begins to say "Let's get ready to rumble!" only to be superkicked by Shawn Michaels, causing him to fall over. As well as being in the commercial for the event, he was the guest ring announcer during the Royal Rumble match itself.

Other sports During his career, Buffer has announced the MLB World Series, the Stanley Cup Final, NBA Finals, the Volunteer 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, and NFL playoff games. He was a guest announcer at the 1999 Indianapolis 500 and the 2017 United States Grand Prix.

Buffer, like his brother Bruce, announced early UFC fights, starting at UFC 6 in 1995. He was the host of the Versus boxing retro show Legends of the Ring, produced by Top Rank, Inc., where he was ring announcer for most of their top matches.

On July 19, 2008, he announced the Affliction: Banned mixed martial arts show. On November 10, 2008, Buffer started the heads-up action between the two remaining players, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov at the 2008 World Series of Poker final table with a modified version of his trademark statement: "Let's get ready to shuffle up and deal."

On September 12, 2021, Buffer announced for NBC's Sunday Night Football matchup, where the Los Angeles Rams hosted the Chicago Bears at the first regular season NFL game with fan attendance in SoFi Stadium. He later announced at the Rams' first home playoff game against the Arizona Cardinals on January 17, 2022, and two weeks later, during the 2022 NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.

On June 28, 2024, Buffer announced his hometown Philadelphia Flyers's 13th overall pick of the first round of the 2024 NHL entry draft at the Sphere in Vegas using his trademarked catchphrase, introducing draft pick Jett Luchanko with his height and weight like Buffer would in the ring, along with Luchanko's previous team.

In February 2025, Buffer made the trip to England to announce the opening match of the Super League season at the Brick Community Stadium between defending champions the Wigan Warriors and local rivals the Leigh Leopards.

He also made appearances at pre-matches of semi-finals and the final of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

Other appearances Buffer has appeared on various talk shows hosted by Jay Leno, David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon. He has also appeared on Saturday Night Live, In Living Color, Mad TV and The Howard Stern Show.

He appeared on NBC's Deal or No Deal on December 10, 2007, and opened the finale of the seventh season of American Idol, a production of RTL. In 2011 he made an appearance on the 12th season of Dancing with the Stars to announce Sugar Ray Leonard week 3 dance. Buffer has also served as ringside announcer for the syndicated television game show The Grudge Match, hosted by Steve Albert and Jesse Ventura.

In the 1997 film Hercules, Hades uses Buffer's catchphrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" during Hercules' fight with Hydra.

He has played himself in various films including Ready to Rumble and Rocky Balboa, and in 2008 Buffer appeared as Walbridge, the main villain in the comedy You Don't Mess with the Zohan. He appears as featuring artist on "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" and "Go for It All!" by German eurodance group the K.O.'s and his voice was sampled in the Ant & Dec song "Let's Get Ready to Rhumble". He recorded the introduction track for country artist Josh Turner's 2012 album, Punching Bag.

Early in 2011, Buffer appeared in a large-scale advertising campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of German electronics retailer Saturn.

In 2013, Buffer appeared in Progressive Insurance commercials, promoting their program of combining different coverages into one policy, with a parody of his famous phrase – "Let's get ready to bundle!"

Buffer reproduced as an action figure in both Toy Biz's WCW line and Jakks Pacific's Rocky line.

In 2022, Buffer introduced Daddy Yankee's final album Legendaddy.

Buffer was confirmed as the master of ceremonies for Probellum: Revolution at Dubai's Coca-Cola Arena on Saturday, December 11.

Trademark Buffer began using the phrase "Let's get ready to rumble!" in 1984. By 1992, he acquired a federal trademark for the phrase. Buffer uses his famous phrase in various licensing deals including the platinum selling album Jock Jams by Tommy Boy Records, the video games Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 for the PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance and Greatest Heavyweights for the Sega Genesis and numerous other products. In addition, he has used variations of the phrase in advertisements, including the popular commercial for Mega Millions in which he says "Let's get ready to Win Big!" and the Kraft Cheese commercial in which he says "Let's get ready to Crumble!" and most recently for Progressive Insurance in which he says "Let's get ready to bundle!" , the catchphrase has generated $400 million in revenue from licensing the trademark.

Personal life Buffer's fame has reunited him with long-lost family members. In 1989, he was contacted by his birth father, who introduced him to his half-brothers after seeing him on television. In the mid-1990s, Buffer brought along one of his half-brothers, Bruce Buffer, as his agent/manager. This grew into a business partnership to increase licensing productivity of the trademark.

Buffer’s first marriage was at age 21, but the marriage ended in divorce after seven years. He has two sons from his first marriage. More than 25 years passed before he remarried in 1999. He and his second wife divorced in 2003.

Filmography

Television Year Title Role Notes 1985–present Top Rank on ESPN Himself/Ring announcer Numerous episodes of both the original ESPN series and the 2017 ESPN revival 1988–2017 HBO Boxing 57 episodes 1989 Showtime Championship Boxing Episode dated November 4, 1989 1991–1992 The Grudge Match 1991–2017 Sky Sports World Championship Boxing Himself/Master of Ceremonies 1992 Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe Himself 1993 Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson1994 Evander Holyfield vs. Michael Moorer Saturday Night Live Season 20 episode 9: "George Foreman/Hole" Uncredited1995Mad TVSeason 1 episode 4: "Life With Buffer"1996 Weird Science Season 4 episode 2: "Men in Tights" The Simpsons Himself/Ring announcer Season 8 episode 3: "The Homer They Fall"1998 Monday Nitro Himself 3 episodes South Park Season 1 episode 10: "Damien" 1998–2000 Celebrity Deathmatch Pilot: "Deathbowl '98" Season 2 episode 1: "Deathbowl '99" Season 3 episode 1: "Deathbowl 2000" 1999 Mad About You Announcer #2 Season 7 episode 17: "Separate Beds" 2000 Clerks Himself Season 1 episode 4: "A Dissertation on the American Justice System by People Who Have Never Been Inside a Courtroom, Let Alone Know Anything About the Law, But Have Seen Way Too Many Legal Thrillers"2002 Celebrity Boxing Himself/Ring announcer Inside Schwartz Himself Episode: "It's All in the Footwork" No official date for the episode as it went unaired 2002–2013 Promi-Boxen Himself/Ring announcer2003 Man vs. Beast Himself Maximum Surge Himself/Ring announcer TV film2004 Open Access Himself Season 1 episode 4: "Miami" Jeopardy! Himself/Video clue presenter Season 20 episode 170: aired April 30, 2004 Las Vegas Himself/Contest announcer Season 1 episode 11: "Blood and Sand" Season 1 episode 20: "The Strange Life of Bob" Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Himself Season 2 episode 10: "The Broadbent Family"2005 50 Hottest Vegas Moments Entourage Season 2 episode 6: "Chinatown" 2006 Legends of the Ring Himself/host Unknown episodes2007 Polizeistund' ade - Das Abschiedskonzert von Klaus & Klaus Himself The World Awaits: De La Hoya vs. Mayweather Saturday Night's Main Event XXXV Season 2 episode 2: August 18, 2007 BET Awards Janice & Abbey Season 1 episode 5: "Success?" Deal or No Deal Season 3 episode 20: aired December 10, 20072008 Phineas and Ferb Event announcer Season 1 episode 6: "Raging Bully" RAW Himself Season 16 episode 10 American Idol Season 7 episode 41: The Final Two Perform2009 Pacquiao vs. Hatton: The Battle of East and West The Great Debate Himself/host/Emcee 2010 The Bold and the Beautiful Himself Episodes #5965 and #5966 2011 Lucian Bute: L'Homme, L'Athlète2012 America's Next Top Model Cycle 18 episode 1: Kelly Osbourne NBC Sports Network Fight Night Himself/Ring announcer 2013 Legendary Nights Himself Season 2 episode 1: "The Tale of Gatti-Ward" 2014 Who Is... 1 episode2015 Inside Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2 episodes At Last: Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Television Documentary 30 for 30 Episode: "Chasing Tyson" 2017 Mano a Mano: The Battle for Mexico 2017 United States Grand Prix Announcer

Video Games Year Title Role Notes 1993 Prize Fighter Himself/Announcer 1996 Pitball Announcer 1997 ClayFighter 63⅓ 1999 Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Himself 2000 Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 Himself/Rumbleman 2009 Ready 2 Rumble Revolution

Discography As a featured artist + List of singles as a featured artist, with selected chart positions, showing year released Title Year Peak chart positions GER "Let's Get Ready to Rumble"1996 20 "Go for It All!" — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart in that territory.