The Voice of the Octagon UFC’s Bruce Buffer

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1:13And now it's time for the Radcast with Ryan Alford. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to one of our library re-releases with the one and only Bruce Buffer. It's time, yes, for you to look back and listen to this amazing episode we did with Bruce a couple years ago. Bruce is a marketer, man. He is a salesperson, a marketer, and the voice of the UFC, the Octagon.

2:06He was amazing. I loved having him on. He really surprised me. I knew of his acumen overall as a human being and as a person, but his acumen as a marketer was unbelievable. That's why if you're watching, I got this belt on. We're number one because of you, and we're number one because of guys like Bruce coming on our show, laying it down, telling you what it's like, telling you what the UFC is doing to grow and how to market yourself. Amazing episode. We loved it. We love you. Happy holidays from Ryan Offord and the whole team right about now. What's up, Bruce? Hi, how are you? Everything good?

2:42Everything's great, man. Appreciate you coming on. No problem. I know you're a busy man. There's no better catchphrase than, it's time. I say it every day I wake up, man. It's time to have the best day that I can. It is. It is. Man, you got your hands in so much now, which I want to get into. And I love the t-shirt. Where did It's Time come from? I want to know where that came from. Let's start there. Well, you know, when I started in the UFC announcing, and I've been managing my brother, Michael Buffer, you know, the legendary greatest announcer of all time, let's get ready to rumble. We met late in life.

3:25And when we did, I owned two companies. I had my first company when I was 19. I've been an entrepreneur ever since. I've owned a variety of companies, a couple failures here and there, but most all successes, you know, I'm proud to say. And when I met him, knowing that he was the announcer, where he was and everything else. We eventually, I sold two companies and became his manager, managing his career and everything. I wanted to announce back then, we agreed I wouldn't do boxing and I said something will come along and boom, this is a very short version. And boom, the UFC came along and I worked my way into the UFC, but I never wanted to be Frank Sinatra Jr.

3:59I never wanted to be, no respect Frank Sinatra Jr., but I wanted to create my own style. I wanted to grow with the UFC to help market the brand, being the marketing and branding person they am first and foremost before I do anything else. And I told him, I said, I need to grow with you as the announcer. But I didn't think I needed a catchphrase. I'm not catchphrase driven. I was more like, it's not what I say, it's how I say it. So it wasn't until about seven years later that his time came about. Everybody always was going, let's get ready. Let's do this. They all wanted to be Michael. I just didn't want to come across like that.

4:33I told myself if in three years I could build my own identity, my own style, I would continue. If not, I would quit because I just didn't want to be that way. So every day I wake up, and I was kidding before, but I'm serious, I look in the mirror and go, it's time. It's time to have the best day that I can possibly have. So I used to open the show saying, it's time to begin the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And then Dana White and the Fertittas bought the show. Dana and I met. He said, I don't want you doing that at the front anymore, top of the show. And I said, fine. But then I got down to the main event, and I realized, hey, everybody's sitting here for five hours watching the show.

5:08The main event's about to start. the fighters been training six to eight weeks with its biggest moment in their lives this is definitely it's time this is this is it's time this is when it's going to happen and i started incorporating it in and gradually over time it developed to the style that i do it now whether i'm jumping or doing whatever i never know physically what i'm going to do till i do it because i never rehearse never i feel the energy of the crowd i just let it fly but when i was in brazil and 20 000 portuguese speaking people said it's time with me i knew right then it hit and that's when i started building it up and then eventually over the last 15 plus years since then you know i've developed into products you know and many things happening worldwide and now it's time has taken on a very individual branding of itself and um i plan on reaching a billion dollars in sales with its time, whether it's sales of other, not in my pocket, you know, sales of other companies, everything, as I achieved over half billions of dollars in sales with Let's Get Ready to Rumble.

6:08But I love my brother, but I'm a competitor, and I'm going to come in first. I love it. I love it. Did you see, I mean, the UFC has had this meteoric rise in the last 10 plus years, but like, did you see that coming? I knew from the very first day I got involved, it was going to be the biggest thing in fighting sports. You know, when you're in business, you need to be able to hopefully recognize the brand, recognize the future. I always think three steps ahead in life, like chess, I apply that to every aspect of business and any business I've owned or been involved in. Because to me, all business is the same.

6:46It's just the product that's different, But you've got to recognize what has the chance to be the big hit. I knew that was going to be with Let's Get Ready to Rumble. I got contacted by another company called Party Poker back when poker was not even as popular as today, who wanted me to be part of it. One of the things I regret, I didn't grab that opportunity back then because I realized online poker was going to explode. And I'm a big part of poker myself in my private life. But when the UFC came on, yes, it was raw. It was a spectacle. It needed refinement. but I decided to stick with it, make the short money back then that I made, lose money going on trips, everything I could do realizing that if I stuck with this because consistency is a key in business, then I knew it would all pay off.

7:26And I have a simple theory, and that's whenever I do business of any kind, I have a three-foot theory, everybody around me be happy, healthy, and prosperous. My goal is to help everybody around me get there because then it all comes back to me. So unselfishly, I've been just dedicating my life to the UFC for over 25 years as of February. what's the you know it might be a cliche but what's the most memorable moment for you you know like as an announcers or like it could be a fight i mean there's been so many memorable fights now uh but what is your most like memorable in ring moment now or not out of the ring you know announcing or or either 25 years i have so many memorable moments there's no one that outstanding i can just give you samples and examples of of many whether it's pulling off a 360 move in front of brock lesnar ufc 100 after being egged on by joe rogan and the internet for six six plus months and realizing you know after trying it in my room three times before i went down to the arena and slipping on the carpet twice that i might not pull it off but when i turned out of the corner of frank mirror to go to face brock lesnar i realized if i didn't pull the 360 and not just casual i'd jump up and spin around and do it um that i would be the uh as i term the bitch of the internet on monday the forums would have torn me apart so that was one but you know there's just so many there you know when dana white and the pertitta brothers took over the ufc and you know we had this amazing dinner together and we all met and um then you go back to the uh tough finale the ultimate fighter with um with forrest griffin stephen bonner you know one of the most amazing fights and amazing moments in UFC history where at that point we continued on going upward like a rocket ship where I have a first-class seat and it's still going that way but um that night we drew 15 share max or 12 share max on the final event and you realize that point that we made spike and spike made us spike tv who we were with back then yeah there's all these memorable moments but you know what the moments to me they're most important is when I get But the relationships I have with the fighters and the fans and the respect factor between us or to have a guy like Antonio Nogueira during one of his last fights in Brazil come back to me after his fight just bleeding and wounded and said, you just must understand your introduction.

9:50It took me to another level. And it's like life's not about the paycheck. I'll be the first one to cash that damn paycheck on a Monday at the bank. Trust me. I'm first in line. I'll be there. Okay. But I'm not in it for the paycheck. as much as I am in it for the paycheck. What you're talking about is what life is all about, these experiences. And I always tell people when I do my branding and marketing, you know, motivational speeches or whatever, one key thing in business is find out what you're passionate about. And if you can learn how to monetize it, you're not really working. You're living a lifestyle.

10:19And I call my life by design. It's just like my new company, Millions.co, where we're branding athletes and everything. This is my Millions.co t-shirt. It's Buff Life with capital B, which means B. It's real simple. Be. Be who you are. Be the best you can be. That's all you can do. Whether you're first, second, or third, if you're the best you can be, then you're winning. And that's what I'm all about. What's interesting, Bruce, is whether you know it or not, I have watched you on UFC and things like that. But the emotion and you wear it on your sleeve. I got to know you more, obviously, studying up for this podcast and all that.

10:56And I love Michael, but I have always seen this emotion in the way you enter the ring and all that. And I'm like, there's something deeper here with you, with this. And I think you just distilled it really well. And I think it shines in a lot of what you do. And I want to give you kudos for that. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. You know, a writer once said that Michael's like a fine bottle of Bordeaux, right? But I'm like a fine bottle of Puncher's Champ, okay? I get out there and again, you hit it on the head. I attack it with passion. I get back to passion. It's one of my key words, whether it's my feelings for my family, a girlfriend, or life and business.

11:37I approach everything with passion. That way in business, if I get knocked down, I stand up and like Rocky said, I move forward and punch harder than ever because you believe in yourself. The moment I can't announce the way I want to announce, if I have to start phoning it in, I'm going to retire. I'm done. Okay, every night I walk out there, it's time to be the best I can be. I was out last Saturday night. I'm going in the octagon again Saturday night. I've been doing this for over 25 years. I have to prove to myself come Saturday night that I deserve this job. And it's that kind of hunger and that kind of passion that I've kept doing what I'm doing.

12:11I'm 64 now, and I won't stop. I stay in shape. I do everything I can because I train and I get ready for these shows like a fighter. the moment i can't enjoy that progression that evolutionary process like i said i'm done it's time for me to find another get up from the table and find another poker game go put my chips somewhere else well it shows but how would you define the culture of the ufc i you know i mean it's raw but like is there what are those what are the words or the descriptions that come to mind when you talk about the UFC? You know, there is a UFC lifestyle, and fans live a UFC lifestyle, whether they're wearing the merch and all that.

12:54But I've got to look at the fans to answer that question because the reason we are where we are is because of the fans, aside from all the work and the great mastery of Maverick marketing and management that Dana White and his team do. But the fans have kept us alive, and it's just gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. And aside from the younger demographic of the 18 to 34, we have the widest demographic, I think, of most sports, whether it's female or male. You know, I can just say again, it's like a lifestyle for these people. They have their first show. They want to see the next one. They want to see the progression.

13:30Granted, there's a lot more shows now. It's hard to keep track of all the fighters, but they're so interested in what they have for breakfast, what they do in their private lives. Once you can lock people in like that, then you've got a successful audience that's going to be a dedicated audience that'll be consistently watching you forever. Not just as happens in boxing now, which I love and I grew up in and I participated in. The bottom line is that the younger demographic is dying off in boxing. The Logan and Jake Paul fights are bringing him back in, but are they consistently going to watch other boxers or are they just going to wait for their influencers?

14:01But at least young eyeballs are coming into the sport. The UFC is just capturing and holding people. Definitely. Let's face it, in COVID, we were the first sport to come back. Yes, you were. And it's really blown up as a result. Yeah. I mean, I want to transition to some of the businesses and its time and all those things. But before we go there, kind of close, not closing the book, but what's it like working with Dana? It's great. You know, I mean, Dana and I knew each other before he took over the UFC. He called me when he bought it. He was managing Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz back then. and the previous owner called me up, Robert Meyer, said I have good news and bad news.

14:42The bad news, I sold the UFC. The good news, I sold it to Dana White and the Fertitta brothers and they want to keep you and John McCarthy. Everybody else is going. I'm like, great. So Dana, we get along really well. We're friends. We're brothers in arms. He's a maverick. He's nonstop. You've got to really appreciate a man who's worth probably a half billion or more dollars and still has the passion to do everything he needs to do to keep this going. Because he could easily back off and live in one of his many homes and do whatever he wants. It's a rare breed. There's very few mavericks in life.

15:17I consider myself a maverick in business. But you've got to look at Dana, and you look at the Vince McMahons, and you look at whether you agree with him or not, the Don Kings of this world. It takes people like this to keep these kind of things alive. And it's perfect. It works well. And Dana's very generous. Yeah. But you don't, and very loyal. But if you're on his bad side, you're screwed. Okay? Yeah. Like, you don't want that switch flipping? No, no. Well, that's never going to happen between us. Not between you. We'd probably throw a few punches at each other and have a beer afterwards. What's the business of MMA, like, now?

16:00Like, both for you and in general, I mean, I guess. I mean, both inside and outside of the ring. We discussed UFC and MMA announcing for you and being the voice of the Octagon is so small to what you're doing now. It's just such a mega business, right? Yeah, you're talking about my business? Yeah, both that and just the business of mixed martial arts now. I think people see the fighting and they see it and they get the pay-per-view and all that, but it's a big business. A big business. A billion-dollar business. I mean, you're talking about a company in UFC that sold for$4.2 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise in the United States.

16:41If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does. And then you've got to look at it at the standpoint. For me personally, the octagon is my base. When I teach people about branding and business, you always have to have a base to work from. Forget about selling something 150 miles away from your base. Sell within a mile of your base. If everybody's your customer, you're a multimillionaire. You have to assume that attitude. So the Octagon is my base. It's established over 25 years. All the other business ventures I have, I'm building out of the base. I did the same thing managing my brother's career.

17:13HBO Rocks and Ring was his base. We built the movies, the TV, the products, everything, which is what I'm doing too. Neither one of us ever crossing over against each other unless we work with each other. But the rules of business are very simple. So when you have a King Kong guerrilla like the UFC as your base, unless you're doing something wrong or you don't know what your brand is all about there's no reason but to move forward and keep branding and building yourself and that's one of the reasons i started the company millions.co because i'm trying to teach athletes in all sports how to brand themselves you know you don't have to have a million two million followers to be the top athlete in your sport to be able to brand yourself and monetize yourself even when you're starting out but people don't realize that this is one of the ways even though i'll make whatever i make out of this and all that.

17:59That's all great. I'm really doing this as a pay it forward thing to help athletes. I see too many athletes losing opportunities to make money and expand their careers because they don't have proper management or they don't know what to do themselves. And that's why I started millions.co. Sorry if I segwayed there for a second. No, I love it. I want to build on that, but I think you nailed it. And, you know, owning an agency, working with brands, the hardest thing to do is to create attention. And you, like you said, you have this base with all this built-in attention and all these fighters have all this built-in attention and leveraging that appropriately into all the other channels is where the opportunity's at and you know so few people i don't know why that's hard to grasp but that's that brands and businesses spend millions and millions of dollars to create attention and the ufc gives you a platform to do that so then you leverage off of that well leverage works in different ways you know and what you're saying too is like you ever watch of course you have you watch the super bowl right now i've had a Super Bowl commercial.

18:59I was in a Budweiser commercial, okay? Bucket list fulfilled. How many times do you watch a commercial on the Super Bowl where people have spent millions of dollars and it's over and you're like, what was that all about? That's called ego advertising. I can't believe on the highest levels that this still happens. So, yeah. No, when you've got the UFC behind you, when I appear for the Las Vegas Raiders, which is the new thing I started this year, okay? It's not about the UFC. It's about me appearing for the Raiders. but in respect to the UFC, they have to realize that I just gave them a million dollar commercial because I've been told I'm one of the three faces of the UFC with Dana and Joe Rogan, let's say, right?

19:37Aside from all the amazing fighters we have who come and go as champions do, but we're consistent. We're consistent. So I'll laugh and giggle with Dana and say, Hey, I just gave you a million dollar commercial time to renegotiate. It's true. You got to use, you got to use the powers that you have. Don't be cocky. just be real and go for it. Have you had offers outside of the UFC? Oh, God, yeah. I've had people throw buckets of money at me. But you're loyal. Loyal. Honestly, you don't leave the NFL to join the CFL, all respect to the CFL. Bellator's down there, all respect to Scott Coker. Scott's a great guy.

20:17I've worked with Scott. I did K-1 fights for him. But they're like catching fighters dropping out of the octagon, falling into the Bellator ring. With all respect to Bellator, it does a fine job. Here's the simple thing. Success breeds competition and competition breeds success. You want other people to be successful, but the UFC is the rocket ship. The flames are coming and everybody's following their path, right? And I'm very lucky again to have a first class seat on that rocket ship. Don't forget where you came from and what got you there. I've seen many people get cocky and make that mistake and leave and they're done.

20:49Their relevancy is gone in six months. Let's talk about It's Time, the brand, the components that are coming out. We've talked about Million Sum. I'm excited. As an energy drink guy, I was watching your podcast last week, and I'm like, all right, when's it coming to the U.S.? Talk about that deal. Well, I spent almost two years on this. It's the It's Time energy drink. Yes. Never thought I'd have my face on a can.

21:18so what this is is basically i don't drink energy drinks i might have to sip one once in a while and i'm just exhausted at a show or something for the main event or whatever but i'm so full of energy it's not an issue but one of the reasons i don't drink energy drinks is because they're crap no offense yeah monster red bull big su successes right but they're full of taurine they're full of stuff that's so bad for you and people are swallowing this down along with five hour energy shots like it's candy. I mean, when I see advertising where five-hour any shot, all respect to you guys, please don't get upset with me, but you're telling people to have it for breakfast?

21:52Are you kidding me, right? If I'm going to drink an energy drink, I want it to be full of vitamins and minerals, okay? So we made this with athletes in mind. It's purely natural. Yes, there's 200 milligrams of caffeine from a natural source of caffeine in this. We've got wolfberry extract, amino acids, vitamins, minerals. This is a nutritional drink with no crash, right? It'll perk you up, but no crash. We're actually dealing with USADA. Jeff and Vesca put me in contact with another company that's going to go after our barrels and batches and give a stamp of approval where this can be drunk, right?

22:27So Energy Drinks is a huge seller. People are looking for them all over, but if I'm going to be in this business, I'm going to have the best product out there. and that's exactly what we created. So I just launched it in the UK on a private launch, excuse me, a soft launch. My company's from the UK that's making it and we're distributing out all over the world. We're going to have four distribution centers alone in the United States because the demand's going to be that big and it's going to be everywhere. So the response has been tremendous. We've got five different flavors coming out but it's also going to eventually go into a line of another 50 products.

23:01I'm going to have pre-workout and post-workout and nutritional products and everything. But slow organic development is the way I build business. And this is going to be the first one out of the gate, followed by other products I'll load the pipeline with. And I'm very excited because the response has been tremendous and the critiques have been tremendous, positive. It's great. I can't wait to get my hands on it. So November will be in the U.S. Where will we be able to find it? We're going to launch it first on Amazon. Okay. And so then the retail stores will be coming afterwards. words um what i would say is follow me on instagram at bruce buffer ufc i make all my announcements there sweet i love that um you've got time for a quick one word rad or fad i give you a keyword and you tell me rad or fad just keep going i go take another five or ten whatever i'm looking at what i my gadget got a note my kristen is coaxing me she goes you're cool you're cool you call nice um so it's times coming out like we're gonna have pre-workouts we're gonna have all that stuff um is are you gonna have obviously you're the face of it with uh your trademark um any other uh influencers or people are gonna be involved that we might know from UFC or otherwise or is this a sole venture with just you know like behind the scenes business partners no there'll be there'll be other people involved I just can't name who they are yet I don't talk about anything unless the deal is signed on the dotted line.

24:24But I've got, I believe I have access to some of the most amazing influencers from Logan Paul to you name it, who are my, you know, my buddy and stuff like that. If there's a business deal where money changes hands and things are proper, but there's one rule I have. If they don't like the product, they don't get the money. Period. I like it. I like it. What do you, I mean, what is the Bruce Buffer personal brand? You know, you talked about social media. You've obviously embraced that with all the channels and platforms. Like, is there a strategy or something as far as how you go at it with like continuing that?

24:53You obviously have the base platform of attention and you're knowing there. But like, how do you approach social media from a marketing perspective? You know, I try, I put it out on social media, but I don't want to be like every post that I'm showing for something I'm showing. So I mix it up. You know, I give examples of my personal life and things that I do and obviously UFC. But it's a timely factor. factor i'm going to put things out that are pertinent and make a point but i don't want to over i've learned a long time ago marketing five words of air let's get ready to rumble which could have easily become where's the beef show me the money you know had a sandy warhol 15 minutes and died out saturation avoiding saturation is key knowing how to do it so people don't get sick of hearing it and that's why i come out with a variety of different products because it's time is such a strong, somewhat generic statement that I own in respect to where I own in trademark-wise that I don't want to abuse it.

25:50I want to build it. So it's careful marketing, careful, consistent marketing, if that answers your question. It does. It does. What do you think, as people get to know you and see that, what do you think the most surprising aspect maybe it is? You're intense in the ring, and then I'm sensing this, I don't know, this real empathy and real caring notion that it's been both refreshing and surprising. I mean, is that something that a lot of people may not know or understand about you? I appreciate your kind words. You know, I think because I walk out in the tuxedo and I've got the jewelry and all that stuff, you know, my show, walk in the phone booth and go out to the Octagon.

26:35You know, out of the phone booth, dressed as the Octagon announcer. but that's still me that's me i you know i walk with this i walk with a swagger you know you know a lot of people do and i might be misinterpreted as being you know because i have i represent i'm so strong in my beliefs maybe not cocky but just a little overconfident or whatever but i'm really humble you know i treat everybody around me with respect i treat people the way i want to be treated i i believe we're all created equal you know and and uh i i just like to be that way with everybody. You know, it's real simple. I don't like cocky people.

27:07I don't like arrogant people and I don't like assholes. Okay. And you put 10 men in a room, you know, you're going to get three of them that are going to fit that mold. So I'll deal with the other seven. You know, it's real simple. And I don't like liars. You know, I'm very honest and everything. I could sell an air conditioner to an Eskimo, but I'm not going to lie about it. I mean, how vested do you get? Like it always, I don't know, separating because there's such intensity with the fighting and you're in the ring and you're calling it and you get so intense with the fighters, but like, is it hard to separate?

27:39I mean, do you, you go into it with favorites and things like that? Or do you just, are you turning all that off to be you? Yeah, it's a, it's a good question. Um, I'm an equal opportunity announcer. Okay. I don't bet the fights. I don't go in like, Oh geez, I got five grand on BJ Penn. I think I better give him a big boost here. No, it's not like that. These warriors, male and female, deserve every ounce of energy I can give them. It's my job to enhance the moment for them and enhance the moment for the fans. The show is not about me. It's about them. I know what it's like to bang. I've fought a lot of my life.