To many, UFC 159 was one of the most cursed cards in history. Whether it be the numerous eye pokes, the dislocated thumb or UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones breaking his toe, there’s no denying how awkward the event was.
One other interesting moment was when the “Veteran Voice of the Octagon” Bruce Buffer made a “human error.” He announced Jim Miller as the victor when in fact it was Pat Healy who walked away with the win. MMASucka.com spoke with Buffer on Monday morning and he spoke about the announcing flub.
“It’s just one of those things, everybody’s human. I’ve announced God only knows, I’d probably have to add it up, but in the area of 3000 fights. It’s never happened, it’s just a human error mistake and there is really no excuse for it, because I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t make excuses.”
“It’s not that I tried to hide anything, it’s just that when I started it came out. It was a visual mistake more than anything and I corrected it and that’s it.”
Miller has won 11 UFC fights and Buffer has announced all of them. Could that have been the reason he made the mistake? He believes not, and he is not making any excuse for it.
“People can conjecture all they want, it’s kind of funny how people pay so much attention. Jim is a warrior, he’s a great fighter in his own right. It’s not really about how many times he’s been a winner, it’s not the fact that they both had red beards as some people said, or sponsored by the same people. Bottom line is I just made a human error mistake and I’m the first one to admit it. That’s how you deal with life, it’s kind of like when you’re in business – everything goes right for the longest period of time and you’re either man enough to look in the mirror and admit you’ve made a mistake or you sit around and your in denial and you don’t learn from it. So like anybody else, even as experienced as I am what you witnessed was a moment in my own and UFC history, so I hope you all enjoyed it.”
It’s amazing that Buffer has announced almost 3000 fights and this has never happened before. He proved that he was human and he is his own worst critic, but admitted to his mistake.
“Stuart Scott the broadcaster from ESPN was sitting behind me and he said, ‘it’s not like I’ve ever made a mistake.’ You have to realize when you’re doing live TV and you do as much live TV traveling the world as we do, I’m surprised that I haven’t made more mistakes over the years. Honestly it’s the first time it’s happened, but like I said I have to sit down and add it up. Let me put it this way, it doesn’t matter to me what anybody says, because I’m my own worst critic, so if you can understand where I come from there then I’ll take care of my own criticizing of myself and I admit to my mistake.”
Listen to our full interview with Bruce Buffer on Tuesday night’s episode of MMASucka Radio.