Bruce Buffer used cameo on Friends as ‘ploy’ to become iconic UFC announcer

He is one of the most recognisable voices in sport as a whole, but Bruce Buffer’s announcing breakthrough came on the set of Friends.

Buffer’s outlandish suits, booming voice, and ability to single handedly crank up the noise levels in every stadium and arena is legendary. However, he may never have stepped into the Octagon were it not for a very brief appearance on the iconic sitcom.

At the time, Buffer was working as a fight manager, but his main aspiration was to be the voice of the UFC. Fortunately, the perfect opportunity to catapult himself into the limelight presented itself.

While he was technically standing in the Octagon, it was as an actor for Friends.

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Passionate lovers of the program may recall the episode when Monica Geller’s boyfriend, Pete Becker, who was played by Iron Man star Jon Favreau, had a dream to become the next biggest star in the UFC. Unfortunately, he got his head handed to him in every bout he participated in, leaving poor Monica wincing with every punch he took.

And Buffer was the person who projected his name into the microphone and through the blaring speakers. “They called me and said ‘listen, we're doing a show called Friends’, which was the biggest comedy on TV,” Buffer said to BT Sport. "Warner Brothers want to use a real announcer, so they are coming down to pick up a tape of you, would you want to be on the show?’

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“I said ‘of course I will’. They came down and picked up the tape and called me that night and told me to ‘be on the set tomorrow morning for rehearsal, you are going to co-star as yourself on Friends’."

As soon as his cameo was confirmed, Buffer got straight on the phone to then UFC owner Robert Myer and told him to visit the set and get a glimpse of himself in action. "I called up Robert and said ‘are you going to be on set? Meet me at lunchtime. I have to talk to you’," Buffer recalled.

“I met with him and said ‘Robert, I feel like a girl in high school waiting to be asked to the prom. I’m asking and asking, let’s make a deal. Let’s stop screwing around and I’m going to ask you one more time and I’m never going to ask you again’. That’s the best poker game I ever played.”

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Buffer went on to announce every single UFC show for the next 25 years. However, his unbelievable announcing streak was cruelly broken for UFC 267, after he tested positive for coronavirus.

"My 24-year-plus streak is over, but I doubt it will ever be beaten,” Buffer said at the time. “Like Dana said, it would take a bullet to keep me out of the octagon, but COVID got me first."

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