Bruce Buffer has recalled being choked out in a sparring session by UFC Hall-of-Fame star Royce Gracie.
Buffer has been the announcer for the UFC for several years, giving his famous "It's time" announcement before the biggest fights in the sport's history including Khabib Nurmagomedov's win over Conor McGregor in 2018. The American has seen almost much all of the UFC's greatest fighters come through including Jon Jones, Georges St Pierre, Demetrius Johnson and Anderson Silva.
Equally, he shared a relationship with UFC legend Gracie, who was considered one of the most influential figures in MMA having won three tournaments at UFC 1, UFC 2 and UFC 4 in 1993 and 1994. However Buffer has recalled his introduction to Gracie, where he was brought out backstage from a gym and the pair were forced to engage in a short training ritual.
"In 1991 I was called up to go over to this gym to train Jiu-Jitsu," Buffer recalled during an interview with Logan Paul on his Impaulsive podcast. "And he asked me 'have you ever trained Gracie Jiu-Jitsu?'. I went to the gym and out comes this six-feet-one, skinny kid, and he pulls me in a room and says 'come with me'.
"He said, 'I understand you are a kickboxer, come at me and take my head off', we didn't put on gloves so I went at him. I swear to god guys, I took five and I'm on my back and he had me in a side choke. He's choking me out and he is whispering 'tap,tap'. I will never forget it, he gets up straightens himself out and says 'see isn't it nice to not get hit in the face?'.
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"Wow, every street fight I have been in has always come to the ground. I know how to fight and I know what it takes but this was just different. I saw this guy at UFC 1 coming out and that was the sport that was winning. Then Jiu-Jitsu became the art and that is what was winning at the time."
Gracie is considered by many to have brought the Jiu-jitsu element of skill to the UFC in its early days, which former lightweight champion Nurmagomedov has even attributed to the former fighter. St Pierre also selected Gracie at the top of his Mount Rushmore selections insisting the Brazilian inspired many to even step in the octagon.
