© Marc Wickert 2004
www.knucklepit.com
Ladies and Gentlemen…Don't be fooled by the black tuxedos: Bruce "The Voice of the UFC Octagon" Buffer has earned two black belts that could be holding his stylish strides up.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 21, 1957, Bruce also has a background in Thai boxing and has studied Jiu Jitsu Do, in which he was awarded a black belt grading.
"In my twenties I was point-fighting, and along with a number of street fights I've been involved with in my life, I knew what real fighting was like, and I wanted to go into a sport fighting style that was more real. That's when I entered the worlds of kickboxing and Muay Thai. Because if I was going to fight and go for it, I'd want to be knocked out or preferably be able to knock somebody out," says Buffer.
Bruce's competitive fighting came to an abrupt end when he suffered from concussion in a bout, which resulted in his having an MRI performed. The doctor advised Buffer to give either fighting or thinking away. Bruce begrudgingly opted to hang up his gloves.
Bruce is President and CEO of Buffer Enterprises Inc., and as well as having his own highly successful announcing career, he is the business partner and manager of his brother, Michael Buffer, and manages his world renowned "Let's Get Ready To Rumble ®" trademark.
As stated at www.bufferzone.net "Millions of fans around the world have seen Michael Buffer announcing major events such as Championship Boxing, WCW Wrestling, the NBA Championship Finals, the NFL Championships, the NHL Finals, the Indy 500 and the Major League Baseball World Series."
Bruce and Michael Buffer were long-lost half-brothers when they first met 15 years ago. At the time, Michael had already been announcing for eight years. Three years after their first meeting, Bruce took over as Michael's manager and he noticed there was no solid protection for the merchandising of Michael's "Let's Get Ready To Rumble®" trademark.
Bruce took Michael's area of expertise from the boxing ring to all codes of sport, and had him appearing in movies, TV shows and making personal appearances for business corporations.
Today, Buffer Enterprises Inc. has grossed retail sales of over $400,000,000 through licensing of the "Let's Get Ready To Rumble®" trademark. Some of the company's many successful ventures include the "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing" video game franchise by Midway, Rumble Robots by Trendmasters, "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Ring" by Manly Toy Quest, WCW Wrestling toys by ToyBiz and the "Ready to Rumble" movie by Warner Bros.
And Bruce has even bigger plans for the future. "My goal is to say that we marketed a trademark which produced a billion dollars for all our partners and everyone we've been involved with. That would make it the most successful trademark spoken by a living person in history. I have projects coming up in music, film, TV, more products for sale, more video games…What I put into action today will create sales in a year or two years from now."
Read the full article on Knucklepit.com.
