FanHouse Michael Buffer

Puerto Rico's Juan Manuel Lopez retained his WBO super featherweight crown with a unanimous decision over Tanzanian native Rogers Mtagwa of Philadelphia in his fifth defense before a packed house at the WaMu Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old southpaw rose to 27-0 with 24 knockouts, but failed to earn his 15th straight KO against the hard-punching Mtagwa (26-13-2, 18 KOs).

Lopez, who was in his first fight as the main event, was nearly out on his feet from the start of the 12th until the end, but managed to hold on for a victory, 114-113 on Kevin Morgan's card, 115-111 on that of Steve Weisfeld, 116-111 on that of Carlos Ortiz.

FanHouse scored it a draw, 114-114.

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.

There's something about Michael Buffer's booming voice and "Let's get ready to rumble" catchphrase that makes a fight feel more significant. So when Buffer worked as the ring announcer over the summer at Affliction: Banned and said "Let's get ready to rumble" before Fedor Emelianenko fought Tim Sylvia, it was just one more element that made it feel like a big-time event.

However, Buffer is a boxing guy first and an MMA guy second, and Golden Boy Promotions has confirmed to me that Buffer will call the Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley fight on January 24, and not the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card the same night. So someone other than Buffer will be introducing Fedor and Andrei Arlovski.

There's something about Michael Buffer's booming voice and "Let's get ready to rumble" catchphrase that makes a fight feel more significant. So when Buffer worked as the ring announcer over the summer at Affliction: Banned and said "Let's get ready to rumble" before Fedor Emelianenko fought Tim Sylvia, it was just one more element that made it feel like a big-time event.

However, Buffer is a boxing guy first and an MMA guy second, and Golden Boy Promotions has confirmed to me that Buffer will call the Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley fight on January 24, and not the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card the same night. So someone other than Buffer will be introducing Fedor and Andrei Arlovski.

Affliction has announced the TV broadcast team that will work its debut show on July 19, and it's a good one.

Jay Glazer, best known as the NFL information man for Fox Sports, will do the blow-by-blow commentary. In addition to being perhaps America's top sports journalist, Glazer has long been a mixed martial arts enthusiast, and he's a great choice.

Joining Glazer in announcing the fights will be Frank Trigg, the veteran UFC and Pride fighter. Big John McCarthy, the original UFC referee, will work as a commentator and conduct post-fight interviews, and Michael Buffer will make the introductions and lend his signature "Let's get ready to rumble" to the festivities.

All in all, it's clear that Affliction assembled its announcing team the same way it assembled its card of fighters: Paying as much money as necessary to get the best people available. We'll find out in two weeks whether that translates to a successful show.

A week ago I wrote that I thought American fans were likely to ignore the first Affliction mixed martial arts show. As Affliction tries to make sure that doesn't happen, they've released the first promotional video:

That video is a good sign: The production values are solid, they've spared no expense (the voice of Michael Buffer ain't cheap), and, most importantly, they're keeping the focus on the simple fact that they've got a great lineup of fighters.

Still, you have to wonder: Will it all add up to enough pay-per-view buys to make this show a success? Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia is a very good heavyweight fight, and Matt Lindland, Josh Barnett and Renato "Babalu" Sobral are all appealing names on the card. But it's not UFC. And so far, no MMA promotion other than UFC has succeeded in the United States.