"I'm trying my best to get better as a boxing broadcaster. I don't rest on any laurels of anything I did in pro wrestling to boxing. I respect the game I don't try to go over the top with stuff. I just don't think that the MMA world will ever give me the opportunity, and I'm fine with that. I don't agree with their reasoning, but I'm fine with it because I've had a great career and I have boxing," stated world-renowned commentator Jim Ross, who talked about his work in the boxing world and much more. Check it out!
PC: You were a huge fight fan long before you were able to get into the commentating aspect of it. How much does being a fight fan help you commentate fight sports?
JR: I think it helps a lot. I really believe that if one can be a fan of what they are covering...I would venture to say, Percy, if you did not like the genre of boxing or MMA, then you wouldn't enjoy your job as much as you do. I don't know how it's possible for anybody to cover football or be a broadcaster in football if they don't enjoy football. I really believe it's advantageous to like the genre of whatever it may be. And because I have made the all important and necessary emotional investment in boxing from my broadcasting career and certainly a fan of MMA, I believe it makes it easier for me to prepare. I look forward to the preparation because I'm a fan of it. To me, I'm like, "This is pretty cool. I'm getting paid to sit in this great seat and add a narrative to what I'm seeing and feeling." Now I realize to that, my opportunities as a boxing broadcaster may not be the same as being a storyteller and provide a narrative and work with an expert analysis team in MMA. In all reality, and this isn't me crying over spilled milk or complaining, but I think my opportunities in MMA are probably going to be very limited. For whatever reason, I think that most MMA management are...and maybe this is just my bias, but I think they are overly protective to not bring in someone of a pro wrestling elk.
PC: I know exactly what you're saying.
JR: Yeah, they just don't want to bring someone from the pro wrestling side of things into their family. But I'm a broadcaster. It just so happened that for many, many years, I made a really good living and built a reputation and my brand, so to speak, doing pro wrestling. So I was in the entertainment business, but I was still a broadcaster. So even though I broadcasted NFL games, XFL games, and college football games in my lifetime, and some MMA and now the boxing, I look at myself as just a broadcaster. I'm trying my best to get better as a boxing broadcaster. I don't rest on any laurels of anything I did in pro wrestling to boxing. I respect the game I don't try to go over the top with stuff. I just don't think that the MMA world will ever give me the opportunity, and I'm fine with that. I don't agree with their reasoning, but I'm fine with it because I've had a great career and I have boxing. And now I'm full boar and I'm all in on boxing and looks like we're going to have a very busy 2017. I had one on the 9th and I have another one the last Friday night of the month. So I'm busy and I'm having fun and that's kind of the main thing at this stage of my life. I didn't want to do anything when I left WWE, if I could now. I didn't want to do anything after I left the WWE unless I enjoyed it. It wasn't just to go out and get a payday. So when you hear me go out and broadcast boxing or if I ever do MMA, it's because I have fun doing it. I enjoy it. I like the game. But we'll see. I don't have any reservations whatsoever that I can't do MMA at the highest level. And that may sound egocentric, and if so, as the late Gorilla Monsoon would say, "Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back," but I have confidence that I could do that. It's no different if someone would tell you, "Well, JR is full of himself; he said he could do college football of pro football." Well yeah, because I understand the game, I'm a fan of the game, I've officiated the game, I've broadcasted the game, and it's a feel thing. If you're a really good broadcaster or storyteller, or perceive that you are, once you understand your product and have product knowledge and you're adequately prepared, then you just bring what you got. You bring what you were gifted with to the dance and let's go make some music. That's kind of where I am on that whole deal. The boxing thing has been a blessing and a great opportunity, but at the same time, I'm still going to stay hooked and watch as much MMA as I can.
PC: You're actually working with an app company that shows fights from all over, right?
JR: Yes, I'm working with the Fite app. We are really deep into MMA. So any MMA fan that has never heard of the Fite app, check it out because, number one, it's free, so the price is right, and secondly, we feature a tremendous amount of fights from around the world in various disciplines that you're not going to see on regular television because most promoters don't have TV deals. We provide those promoters and those athletes an opportunity to feature what they do and get exposure. So if you download the Fite app, all you need is a smart device and WiFi and you're in.
PC: And everyone has both of those pretty much these days, so it should be a lock.
JR: Pretty much! I watch a variety of different pay-per-views on it. I watch pro wrestling on it and we do a lot of MMA and boxing. Golden Boy Promotions do some shows on there. Boy, the MMA is really growing because there are a lot of energetic young promotions that want to get their product on the TV screens and in the homes of their fans and we afford them that opportunity. So anybody that's checking you and your site out and really wants more product than what you are provided on the networks, we got alternatives. It's not to replace that; it's just to add to it. So if you're a big fan and want some more of it, we got a lot of it for free right there on the Fite app. Be sure to check that out and download it, and again, there are no financial risks of involvement; just a pretty good deal.
PC: Before I let you go, I have to ask if you have any stories or just a memory that sticks out in your mind about my favorite wrestler of all time, Randy "Macho Man" Savage.
JR: He was a real unique guy. He was very intense. Some would probably tell you on a occasion he was too intense. And you can be too intense over the most mundane things. You can be intense over your matches or your work. And for whatever reason, I don't know what happened over his lifetime, but he wasn't very trusting. Old school wrestling-wise, that was kind of a trait of the whole group. They had a little bit of paranoia. As that song said years ago, "Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep," and I think that was Randy. He was an old school guy that didn't trust a lot of people. I worked my first event, which was Wrestlemania IX, and I worked it with Randy and Bobby Heenan outdoors at Cesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I had never worked with either of them before. I don't think I had worked but one or two at best, just a handful of outdoor events, so that was new. It was my first WWE assignment and that's like getting hired by the NFL and they say, "Okay, you're going to be the play by play guy for the SuperBowl; get ready for it." But he was an intense guy. He had great instincts and obviously, as you know, he had a unique sound and delivery. It was an adventure to work with him because he was very unpredictable and you never knew what he was going to say. And that kept everybody on their toes. I never had any bad experiences with him. He was challenging to work with in a good way.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]