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Your favourite/least favourite MMA commentators


wandshogun09

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Who has the velvet voice? Who is like GBH on your ears? Be it single announcers or the best/worst announce teams, fire away.

 

Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are obviously the most well known and long serving MMA commentary team. These two are kind of the UFC's version of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. Like a comfy pair of slippers in some ways. But they've kind of outstayed their welcome for me now. Goldberg especially. I don't mind Rogan, he has his faults but I would've been sad to see him go if he'd called it quits when he was considering it a few months back.

 

I've always said that, despite detesting him, Frank Mir was one of the best ever in his days as the colour man for WEC. Shame he had to go and ruin it by wishing Brock Lesnar to be the first death inside the octagon.

 

Brian Stann has been tremendous since donning the headset in 2013. Apart from overusing the word 'gorgeous', he's the best of the bunch for me right now. Daniel Cormier was excellent when he called a Fight Night (I forget which) recently as well. I think he has the potential to even surpass Stann the Man if it becomes a regular thing.

 

On the bad side, I can't be doing with Kenny Florian. I wish he'd just fuck off, to be honest. Dull as shit to listen to. Jon Anik is a bit robotic as well but he's kind of growing on me now. He's alright.

 

Oh and Bas Rutten could fall into both the Good and Bad categories for me. I love Bas but there's no question, he's been phoning it in for years now whenever he's gotten a commentating gig. The last time I remember enjoying him was when he was teamed with Don Frye for some show around 2010/11ish (without checking I think it was Shark Fights) and they just chatted shit and joked around all show long instead of actually calling the fights. I loved Bas' work in Pride. And that shows that he can be good at this shit. Even now when you see him interviewed or on Rogan's podcast or something, when he's talking about and breaking down fights he actually gives a fuck about he's still great to listen to. But it's clear he's just going through the motions when announcing on these smaller shows. He doesn't really care and is just there for the paycheque. Like Bobby Heenan at the end of his run in WCW.

 

I'll leave you with this. Snoop Dogg auditioning to be a UFC commentator...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=jqhH-qLt-UU

 

Not really, obviously. It's him watching Khabib Nurmagomedov (or as he says it Nurmagabob...evov) dismantling Michael Johnson at UFC 205. Khabib's his "new nigga" now apparently.

 

Over to you.

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It's a tough one, i still think Rogan/Goldberg are the best team. As much as Rogan pisses me off at times he's still probably the best at what he does.

 

Jimmy Smith needs to be in the conversation though. He's great in Bellator (Bellator's team is on close to on par to the UFC's team for me), and one day i'd like to see him call some UFC events. If Rogan had left full time i'd have campaigned for Smith to take his place.

 

Fully agree on Rutten. I think every MMA fan has a soft-spot for him because he was the voice of Pride but his work for the WSOF is woeful.

 

oh, i love Michael Schiavallo too. I know he's not everybody's cup of tea, but he always entertains me. It's a shame he's stuck down on AXS TV with Miletich (like Miletich too) because i rarely get to see the shows he works on. Glory need to bring him back.

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Possibly the worst commentator ever is Renzo Gracie. Can't remember which specific event/fight it was, but I remember him in WSOF and every other sentence was "beautiful fight". Chael Sonnen is highly entertaining in Bellator, he deserves an honorable mention at least.

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Great shouts on Smith, Schiavello and Miletich. I was kind of rushing the OP so didn't really delve into all the names I wanted to get to, so mostly just covered the UFC guys.

 

Jimmy Smith is really good. I said the same thing when Rogan was on about giving it up. As good as Rogan is, I honestly think he's only the third best colour commentator in MMA at best right now, behind Smith and Stann.

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Smith, Miletich and Stann are decent mentions.

 

I liked Mauro in Pride. In Strikeforce, he tried too hard to shoehorn in pop culture references. Quadros's tandem with Bas deserves a lot of credit. It was a different style to what the UFC commentators use, much more formal, but it worked. They reigned it on the special occasions like Fedor vs Cro Cop, which gave said occasions the special feel it deserved. Mir was indeed really good. I'm biased, but I also liked Franky Shams in Strikeforce. 

 

I don't like Dan Hardy's commentary. I like him, but something just doesn't click with it as a commentator. When I hear his voice, it always resonates that I'm watching one of the UFC's lesser shows. Even when it's something like Anderson vs Bisping in London, he just doesn't fit the occasion. Maybe it's his voice, or his style, I'm not sure. A lot of people thought that Gus Johnson was shit in Strikeforce, but I don't remember much about him in retrospect.

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Chael Sonnen is highly entertaining in Bellator, he deserves an honorable mention at least.

 

Yeah, agree. His style seems to work with the type of promotion that Bellator has become now too.

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My affection for Brian Stann is very much similar to Snoops thoughts on Khabib. I've read people on here say they dislike how cold Stann is when things get exciting, which is very much a fair criticism, but I enjoy his clinical and balanced approach to it all. My biggest gripe with Rogan is and always will be his inability to not cheerlead for his favourites. Granted, he's gotten better at not doing it, but nevertheless it still goes on and it can usually end up getting ridiculous the slant Rogan puts on the story of the fight - even Rogan has admitted fault for this, at times. With Stann, he is like a blend of the cold insight you get with Cruz, but with the sort of broadcaster charisma Rogan has. Stann is excellent; seems like a top guy too.

 

However, similar to Andy Gray, Rogan is and for the foreseeable future always will be the voice I associate with the big fight occasion. Despite my criticism of him, he's obviously good at what he does. I agree his passion can be infectious. If he pisses off I won't be too bothered because he's better at doing podcasts than commentating and we get more content.

 

I agree with wand that DC has shown he's very capable of doing a good job. In the future, I'd love to see a three man team of Goldberg, Rogan and them rotating between Stann and DC. I really enjoyed the three man set up they did when Jones fought OSP.

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I know that,Bruce Buffer, Joe Martinez to a certain extent, Michael Buffer & Jimmy Lennon Jr all have the big fight feel, Michael C Williams doesn't, as i said he's OK just nothing special.

 

I was talking the whole announce team and I would put ring announcers in with that, I also don't mind Lenne Hardy doing the fighter line up but don't want her as the proper ring announcer, especially in the West.

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