Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Bruce Buffer - The Man Behind The Veteran Voice Of The UFC

Episode Date: December 1, 2021

Bruce Buffer (@brucebuffer) is a ring announcer best known for his time in UFC as the "veteran voice of the octagon" for the last 25 years. He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he got started as a ring announcer, meeting his half-brother Michael Buffer when he was 31 and Michael was 47, his business ventures outside of the UFC, his favorite names to introduce, his fight day preparation and more! Use the code CVV to get a $25 bonus on your Crypto.com metal Visa card: http://crypto.com/app/cvv For more on Bruce Buffer visit: http://brucebuffer.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! All right, here we go, my friends. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thank you so much for being with us as we chat with one of the goats. We talk about it during this conversation, but one of the things I love about Bruce Buffer is passion just oozes out of him

when he's in the middle of that octagon. The man clearly loves what he does. And it was such an honor to be able to share some time with Bruce Buffer. You can find him on social media. It's at Bruce Buffer on Twitter. It's at Bruce Buffer UFC on Instagram. And if you're not following me, it's at Chris Van Fleet. And hey, if you're not following the podcast, give us a follow wherever you're listening to this right now.

And I'm going to guess since you're listening to this that you might be a fan of the UFC. So you might have heard about that recent deal that the UFC did with Crypto.com. $175 million over 10 years. And they're the UFC's official cryptocurrency platform. And now you see Crypto.com on all the fight kits. And Crypto.com is not only partnered with the UFC. They've also partnered with me. And they want you to join the fastest growing cryptocurrency app that is leading cryptocurrency adoption. So they've put together a pretty generous deal here for anybody who listens to my podcast. So if you click on the link in my show notes and you use the code CBV, they're going to give

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podcast. So the code again is CVV. The link is in the show notes, but it's crypto.com slash app slash CVV. Our fan of the week is Lou Lyon, who says, great interviewer. Chris has a great ability to connect with his guests. They trust him, and this leads to incredible deep answers to his questions. I love his ability to lower their defenses and communicate with them

like two friends would naturally talk. I look forward to his podcasts every week. He is a master. Well, thank you very much for the super kind words, Lou. I appreciate that. And if you want a shout out on the show, just leave a review on Apple Podcasts. I read one out on every single episode. Now, you might have noticed that this episode is shorter than the usual, you know, 45 minutes to an hour that we normally do.

Bruce had an insanely busy week, and he was gracious enough to give us 15 minutes during a super, super busy time. So we made the best of it. So ladies and gentlemen, the legendary Bruce Buffer. Bruce, such a pleasure. Thanks for joining us. Oh, my pleasure, Chris. My pleasure. When we see you in the octagon, you were like passion-personified. And I'm curious, do you live your entire life with that same passion for everything? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I try. If passion is something, listen, I always feel that if you're waking up, especially for work and you're going nine to five or whatever, nine to 12 or nine to nine or whatever the case might be,

if you're not passionate about what you do, then you have a job, right? And that's okay. That's great, as long as you're into your job. But if you're passionate about what you do and you're monetizing it, then you're living a life by design, you know, a lifestyle. So you're waking up to go after what you love. And the UFC with the travel around the world and everything involved, I mean, it's more than just announcing 13 fights in an evening over six or seven, eight hours.

There's prep work. There's this, there's that. There's sacrifices spending time with your family. There's sacrifice of being on the road. People look at the glorious side. and the trick is to make it look easy, but it's definitely a lot of work. And that combined with all the other businesses

I run and everything else, which gets a little overwhelming in time, but if the passion's involved, then you deal with it and you get it done, you know? If you have a girlfriend or a wife, if you're not passionate about it, I mean, it's not going to go very far, you know? That's it.

Yeah, tell us a little bit about everything else that you have going on because I think that people only see you Saturday night looking dapper in the middle of the octagon, but they don't know everything else that goes on. Well, like for instance, last weekend and next weekend. I'll give me example next weekend.

Sure. I'll fly to Vegas on Friday. I'll do the UFC on Saturday. I'll stay overnight and then I'll open up the Raider game at Allegiance Stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders. And I did that last Sunday. That's one thing I do. That was very cool, by the way. I saw that live. I'm like, ah, it's Bruce Buffer.

Yeah, it was awesome. There's a big, big boost in my career and the fact that I'm just not the octagon announcer. I'm a performer and an announcer. But I do motivational speaking. I have three TV commercials coming out in the next few months. I think my latest Manscape commercial just got released, which I always have a kick in doing because I'm very self-deprecating. I don't mind making fun of myself and, you know, giving people a giggle over my, you know, whatever I do. But at the same time, when I do other businesses, like the business I've expanded from my brother Michael Buffer, the great announcer, known for

his famous Let's Get Ready to Romo Frays, which we got together some 30 years ago and I properly trademarked and built his career and his brand worldwide into a half billion dollar brand along with them and during that process uh which i wrote in my book and you can read about on the internet you know i created my career in the octagon which is now 25 plus years but in business you should start from a base and build out of the base revenue streams which i did for michael and all the toys and video games and everything that we created and did or merchandising and all that so i'm doing the same thing for myself because to me all business is the same. It's just the product that's different. And right now I have three or four big huge things happening. I just launched as a co-founder

a site you can go to called millions.coceo. And what that does is something that's never been done. We started with fighters. I'm all about the fighters making a million dollars a night when they step in and put their blood, sweat and tears on the octagon floor or ring or whatever it is. And that doesn't happen except for choice few as true of any business, right? Although the UFC pays more than anybody. I don't care what anybody says. I can argue that point all day long, okay? Fighters are making good money.

But when they're not fighting, you know, they need to train. If they have a second job, takes up a lot of time. So we're trying to teach them out of brand and market themselves. We'll take a fighter or an NCAA athlete now that they can make money. Or we have MLB, NFL stars coming in. And what Millions.com does is we'll create merchandise for them. And we'll give them ways to make money doing videos like cameos, which I do a lot of cameos and a lot of videos from my site,

Bruce Buffer.com for the fans. It keeps me extremely busy doing that for the fans and stuff. But they've got them a chance to market to their social media fan base and direct market, which is what business is about these days with social media. So I teach branding and marketing companies. I want to teach it to the athletes. And if you go to Millions.com, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. The other thing is is Punchers Chance, my bourbon.

We've had this launch for a year now. It's the sweetest tasting nectar of the bourbon gods out there. I say that because I can back it up. We won six gold medal awards, three for taste, three for bottle design. And it's the fastest selling, highest rate of craft to stow bourbon in America right now. Big, big, big. Connor McGregor, George Clooney, Ryan Reynolds, they all sold their companies. I can say I've won more awards than any of them,

said maybe Casamigas, and I'm just a year out of the gate. So watch what I do with this in the next five years, okay? on its way. Big product coming out hitting America that I launched in the England is my its time energy drink. Now, this is a very amazing drink, all natural. None of the crap like Torraine, which is in all the others, not putting them down, but it's not good for you. Okay. This has all natural energy, absolutely no sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine from green coffee beans, no crash, full of vitamins and minerals. This is made for athletes. This is made for everybody. It's actually nourishing. You can drink this every day. It's not bad for you.

You know, obviously it's a little variety there. But this is going into 40 countries worldwide. Yeah. It'll be in America next month on Amazon and then in every store in America next year. So that's one of my biggest projects I'm working on there. And I'm launching, and there'll be another 50 nutritional products over the next two years from the It's Time energy brand, you know, being distributed out through the pipeline. So I have all this pre-planned.

I run business like chess, I think three steps ahead. And I always side myself with the best business partners. and i only deal with the best products that's why i announced the ufc that's why i released what i just showed you it's why i'm with mayas dot co blah blah blah what's why i managed michael buff you know the whole nine yards and the next one to answer your question is i'm coming out with the it's time cologne um very amazing it's i'm telling you your girlfriends are gonna love this trust me and um i don't want to make a joke like smell like buff but it's like that'll be also in probably 40 countries around the world you're going to the airports and the do

duty-free shops and you'll see the image of me with my cologne along with julia roberts and math mconehe when i see that i'm going to fall on the floor laughing my butt off okay but that's also going to be backed up with a whole line of toiletries very high-quality toiletry lines body wash facial wash moisturizer deodorant uh soap and a rope you know it's i have all it's it's all there and you'll see all this if you follow me on instagram you'll see that the evolutionary process of what's taking place yeah there's a long answer to a short question and there's much more going on too. Yeah.

I mean, just the cameos and the videos that people order at brucebuffer.com seriously keep my partner, Kristen, and I very, very busy. Yeah. And I get partial proceeds back to animal, military, and children charities. What's the most ridiculous request you've got? Because you do intros for people on. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

No, the intro is championship intros, UFC fans, they love them. I introduce you like you're a champion in the cage. And I'm not pushing it. But again, if you go to Bruce Buffer.com, you'll see it or go to cameo. You'll see samples. I've had a church. Here's an example. I mean, I've had people request eulogies.

They haven't even died yet. They won a eulogy, okay, to play at their view. My God. I've had a crest where I introduced Jesus Christ against the devil at a battle that they played on a video at a Sunday sermon for a big church. You know, that was pretty wild. Wow. Yeah. There's some other, some crazy requests come in.

You know, all the time I did a cameo where I said, and now it's time to move on. And I thought the guy was doing it for his girlfriend because she's buying a new car, getting a new job. But he was breaking up with her. Oh, my God. And he didn't make that clear to me. And it went viral all over the world. I mean, the New York Times, the UK son, TMZ, they all covered it.

It's like, I don't do those kind of videos. That was a mistake, you know? And you got to be careful when they send those scripts. You don't know what they're for. I have to turn down. Keep a classier. I won't do it. Walk me through Fight Day.

What does your routine look like before you get in the Octagon? You know, a good night's sleep, power breakfast. meditation, workout. I don't rehearse. I'll go over the names, make sure I say them correctly. I've got about four hours of prep work on the five cards I hold on my hand, which have also become huge collectibles. One of those five cars, carbure cards, is sold as much as $4,200, one of a kind collectible. I'm very big and memorabilia collectibles. I know how to create a market for it, but that's another story too. But it's just being prepared for the show. And then once I walk out into the arena, I feel the energy of the crowd, then that's what gets me going.

What's the toughest type of name to say? Believe it or not, single syllable names like Mike Swick, right, Frank Trigg. Give me Habib Nomagamatov all day long. Give me Russian, Asian, you name it. The more meat, the more fun, you know? Is it because Mike Swick, it's just two syllables? Can't say anything? Yeah, it's just single syllable.

Mike Swick, you know, Mike Swick, you know, he's a great friend of mine, but he's actually at least his, Whig, Frank Trigg, you know, it's like, I mean, Habib, Nurmaghamara. You know, there's so much more to that, so much more to that. I'm so curious where you found your voice because your announcing voice is, it's like a performance, like you said, and so different from your speaking voice. Thank you. My dad was a Marine Corps drill instructor.

He was in the Marines for 13 years, World War II in Korea. I used to walk in a room when I was like five or six, say, hey, dad, son, project your voice, shoulders back, chest out, right? Let him know you're in the room. Okay, dad. Right? But this is what I grew up with. And he, his voice, he never hit me. His voice could scare the Pope. Right. If I knew dad was mad at me, I just didn't want to reap that wrath of God when he got home, you know. I love him to death. I loved him death. He's not with me anymore. But that's probably where the upbringing came in. But I've never been trained. I just, I like to sing when I was a kid. I did motivational speaking before I ever set foot in the octagon. And it just kind of built, you know. It's a tool. If you look at me in the first fight I did back in 19. 96, it's a completely different, you know, it's been, it's been evolutionary process. The muscle or the tool has been, you know, developed.

How many fights or how many years would you say it took you to become the performer that you are now? Because like you said, if you look at you in the 90s, it's a lot different from now. I would say during the first three years, I told myself, in the first three years, I can't create my own distinct style. I wasn't going to do it. I didn't want to be Frank Sinatra, Jr., no disrespect to him. He does what he does.

I didn't want to be, oh, that's Michael Buffer's brother, or he's being like Michael. I had no interest in that. I managed Michael. I don't ride his coattails. I sew them on, right? There's a big difference. So if I was going to stand up by myself, I needed to make my own mark in life. And I would say probably, you know, over the course of three to seven years, I was standing still for the first three years.

And I remember I had this lion inside me. I've been an athlete my whole life. And I banged. I stood across. I know what it's like to fight. And I want to introduce the warriors the way I would want to be introduced. So I had to move. you know and i started moving and then you know people talk about my moves the 360 the 180 the

yeah 90 you know degree the jumps the but i don't know what i'm going to do until i do it okay but there's a repertoire of movements that i've made i know that octagon like a basketball player knows is half court i know exactly where i'm at it every time and like i said passion i go in there let it fly show's not about me it's about the fighters and the fans and i'm there to perform for them and the power i have to prove to myself every night i walk in the octagon i deserve that job. I'm that way every night. Saturday night or Saturday when I walk out, I did UFC 268. I think I really, you know, got into that and had a great time in Madison Square Garden after I got over COVID before that. Not fun. Stay safe. And I'm still safe. I can get it again. I don't

want to ever get that thing again. Thank God my lungs are good. And then I'll go out Saturday when Misha Tate fights Kevina, and I'll do the same thing. I've approved myself, I deserve this job. before the first ever buffer 180, did you plan that out or did it just happen in the moment? Happened in the moment. I was actually facing the red corner when I introduced the blue corner. Suddenly realized way and then I'm over in the red corner. So I used to have a pretty good spinning bottom fist. And I spun around, you know, to the blue corner and fighting, you know. And all of a sudden, the crowd reacted. And I thought, I got back to my seat and I thought, hmm, something there. Another little addition. Yeah. I like, I want to be super respectful of your time. Thank you so much for joining.

wanting us. I end if you have a couple more questions. Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, I will talk about what I was going to ask you, which is gratitude. And what are three things in your life right now that you're grateful for? I'm grateful for my family, you know, the upbringing, the love that I'm very lucky to say that I have in my life. I'm grateful for my health that I, because no matter what's around me, if you're not healthy, it's just not worth it. You know, you've got to be healthy to enjoy everything you have. And I'm grateful for, I'm grateful for a lot of things, but on a third note, I'm grateful that I have the attitude that I have where I have a three-foot theory. And when everybody around would be prosperous, healthy and happy, right? I treat everybody's respect. And I'm grateful

that I'm that kind of a person that I can share that. You know, I'm not into cocky and arrogant people. I'm not something I care to associate with, although we all have to. I just, I'm just grateful to be humble and just appreciate that I wake up every day and I have what I have in my life. I'm very grateful for everything I have in my life. And I'll work my best to keep it going and take care of my family. I love that. I remember where I was when I first found out that UFC was a thing. You were kind of in that world before you were working for UFC. But do you remember hearing about the ultimate fighting championship for the first time? I remember sparring with Hoyce Gracie in 1991, before 93 when it started. I went to a dojo in Torrance, California that a movie director,

very famous named John Millius, who did Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn and wrote Apocalypse Now. He said, hey, Buff, come with me to, I know you're kickboxing all the time, but come with me and train Jitsu. I said, I've trained Jiu Jitsu. Not too much, but he said, no, you never trained Gracie Jitsu. I went there and a skinny kid came out and said, hey, my name is Hoyst, come with me. And they took me into a room, closed the door, all patted up room. And he said, I understand you're a kickboxer. Come at me. Take my head off. Right. I said, you want to put on some gloves? You know, I'm game. And he said, no, come at me. So I went at him, you know, threw a few punches, got underneath my punches, took me to the ground, 45 minutes, 45 seconds later.

So I'm in a side choke. He's choking me out. He goes, tap, tap, tap, tap. So I tap, and I'll never forget. He got up, straight in his ski, and he said, see, isn't it nice not to get hit in the face? Right. And then two years later, the UFC came out and I watched it, and I realized that was my world. And, you know, welcome to it.

But it was a spectacle. It needed to be refined. And, you know, I was glued to the screen by UFC two and three. It got a little brutal, but I'd seen brutal fights like that in reality. I didn't know if it was going to make it. I don't think they knew they were going to go past a few shows, but then the refinement came in. I had Michael do six, seven, an ultimate ultimate, and then I couldn't keep him there because we had a big contract with WCW wrestling back then with Sting and Hulk. And then I fought to get myself into the octagon, which is a whole other story.

I wrote about all this in my book, It's Time and More. I wrote that as a motivational book for people, aside for just my story, it's 30% UFC of the rest of, This is family, success, failure, all the wonderful things we go through in life. What's amazing, though, is that you can take two fairly common words, it's and time, and make it your catchphrase. That's unbelievable. That's why I always say it's not what I say, it's how I say it. And I didn't go immediately to have a phrase because I wasn't phrase driven. I didn't want to be again like Michael Buffer, but just copying Michael. I wanted to create my own style. And that just came over time and then it developed organically. And in business, when it develops

organically, that's when it becomes the strongest possible. Yeah, I think that there's certain things in our life that when they happen, they put us on a path and lead us to where we've become or where we are now. True. Can you imagine if you and Michael, your path is never crossed and you never realized that you were half-brothers? We wouldn't be having this conversation. I was, I had business, I started my first business at 19 and I'll always make money. I mean, I know. I know. I know. know how to make money and whatever it's little or a lot or whatever. I always believe that I can, because I've gone broke in my life. You know, I made seven figures and lost it and made it again. You know, you got to know what it's like to fail before you know what it's like to succeed

sometimes. But I'm confident that I would always find something to do. I'm an entrepreneur. But thank God that Michael and I did meet for two reasons. I found my long lost half brother, who I loved dearly. And I was able to get into the world of sports and entertainment, which I probably would not have gone to the foray as I am now if it wasn't for meeting Michael, but I did it my way, and that's what I'm very happy about. And now the two greatest announcers of all time have a last name buffer. Yes, thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's very kind of you. I appreciate your words.

Yeah, it's really cool. Sunday night he's out doing the Rams and on Monday night. I'm out on ESPN doing the Raiders. I mean, and we're brothers. It's just, it's a very unique thing. It's very, we're very proud of that. It's very cool. We're very supportive of each other. It's been amazing watching your progress in the. ring and watching you become one of the goats. So thanks. So amazing to be able to share this time with you, Bruce. I really appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Just call me Bruce, man. I'm just out there doing my gig. I'm equal to everybody else, but if you try to announce it against me, I'll kick your buddy. Yeah, I've done some ring announcing. I am no Bruce Buffer.

You don't want to be Bruce Buffer. You want to be who you are. You want to be Chris. All right. I love that. Bruce, thank you so much. All right, Chris, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Bruce Buffer. What a guy. What a voice. Big thank you to Bruce for making the time to chat with us during a crazy, busy week. Thank you to you for always making time to listen to Insight with everything that's going on in your life as well. Share this episode with that one friend of yours who loves UFC and snap a screenshot. Let us know that you're listening. Tag Bruce.

He's at Bruce Buffer on Twitter. He's at Bruce Buffer UFC on Instagram and tag me as well at Chris Van Fleet. And we'll end with these words from Thomas Edison who said, many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. That's powerful on a Wednesday. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one for some more insight. The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock,

but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987, Hammer Alley. Ever heard of them? To Rock Bottom.

Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. I'm.