It’s Time – My 360° View of the UFC Review

I am a fan of UFC and MMA in general, but not as big a fan as I once was (and even back during the time when I was a big fan, I preferred PRIDE to UFC). Anyone who has ever watched a UFC fight knows who Bruce Buffer is; the charismatic ring announcer, half-brother to legendary wrestling and boxing announcer Michael Buffer. What I didn’t know was that Bruce Buffer had written a book and that it was coming out on May 14th; that is until it showed up at my front door late last week.

Seeing as how I hadn’t heard of the book before, I neither considered buying it nor planned out time to read it and review it. But I figured what the heck, someone took the time to randomly send me a copy and I’ve always liked Bruce Buffer as a ring announcer (and was a fan of his brother back in WCW), so I picked it up and started reading it without knowing if I’d care to finish it and thus review it. Luckily, it turned out to be an entertaining read (which I suppose one should expect consider it’s Bruce Buffer) and a pretty quick read at that. At 277 pages, I was able to knock it out in two days casually reading it during that time.

It is what you would expect from a Bruce Buffer autobiography; a lot of stories involving UFC and fighters, and some interesting stuff from outside of the octagon as well. It starts off with Bruce detailing an ankle injury shortly before UFC 129 (2011) and how he took care of it in order to be able to do his entertaining style of announcing at UFC’s biggest event at the time, only to end up suffering a bad knee injury during his announcing St. Pierre in the main event.

From there, Buffer gives some interesting behind the scenes stories about plenty of famous UFC fighters; Randy Couture (my favorite of the bunch), B.J. Penn, Chuck Liddel, Jon “Bones” Jones, Tank Abbott and Tito Ortiz (my least favorite) amongst others. And while this book is really for UFC/MMA fans, as you’ll certainly get the most enjoyment out of hearing about all the UFC backstage and road stuff, it’s still an entertaining read for anyone as Buffer has an interesting story to tell.

There are stories about Bruce’s father, who was a Marine drill sergeant. Then there’s the story of how Bruce met his long lost half brother Michael, and how the two brothers hit it off and Michael took Bruce on as his manager. Bruce got the trademark for Michael for the phrase “Let’s get ready to rumble!” and turned it into a $400 million dollar property; and how Bruce followed in Michael’s footsteps by becoming a famous announcer himself in becoming the “veteran voice of the octagon.” If you ever wanted to know what it was like when Bruce first met Dana White, it’s in the book. Hell, Bruce even recounts the time he saw a UFO in Malibu on his way home from work when he was 19.

“It’s Time” is also packed with little side things to break up things a little bit like “Bufferisms” and lists of ten items like “10 tips for surviving a street fight” and “10 tips for being a good wingman,” poker tips, etc. It ends with the epilogue of Bruce being able to return to announcing at UFC 133 following his knee injury.

The book itself is well-written although there is a typo here and there. If you like reading autobiographies and you’re a fan of UFC, then this really is a book you ought to purchase when it comes out on May 14th. Its suggested retail price is $25.95, but you can order it right now from Amazon for $18.42. Non-MMA fans can get some enjoyment out of the book, but really its appeal is going to be to fans of UFC. It’s definitely worth reading, so check it out.

It’s Time – My 360° View of the UFC gets a three out of five: GOOD.

* A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.