FanHouse BruceBuffer

In March of 2008, Michael Buffer was lying on an operating table at the USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

The man known for igniting crowds with an electrifying introduction of boxers with his signature, copywritten phrase, "Lets Get Ready To Rumble," was receiving potentially life-- if not -- career-threatening neck and throat surgery.

"The prognosis early on was that I would have to have continuous radiation, which, of course would cause a problem with the saliva glands, which would mean I wouldn't be doing any more announcing," said Buffer, 65, whose operation removed a lymph node attached to his tonsils -- the source of a cancer called squamous cell carcinoma.

On Saturday night a pair of combat sports titans will go head to head, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Golden Boy Promotions square off in simultaneous pay-per-view cards. And that means we'll have a brother vs. brother battle of ring announcers, with Bruce Buffer saying "It's time" at UFC 103 and Michael Buffer calling "Let's get ready to rumble" for Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Juan Manuel Marquez. I talked to Bruce Buffer last week, and he said he's confident the UFC show will win the night on pay-per-view.

LAS VEGAS -- One of the fun. light-hearted storylines of UFC 100 weekend was whether or not we'd see the long-rumored "Buffer 360."

For those of you who missed it, yep, he pulled it off.

First thing's first. Matt Serra was not robbed at UFC 98. Neither though, did he lose. After two years of back and forth, after injuries delayed their original fight, and after 15 minutes in the octagon, the two Matts were fit to be tied, and their match should have been ruled a draw.

The judges, however, saw things differently. After three rounds, they gave Matt Hughes a 29-28 across-the-board win. They no doubt gave Serra the first round, and Hughes the final two.

The fight was close enough that neither fighter was quite sure whose name ring announcer Bruce Buffer would call.