A SLICE OF BOXING
“I always had a reverence for great actors,” he recalls. “And somewhere inside, I always wanted to act.” O’Brien is now a working actor. To help make ends meet, he has a job in marketing and sales for the Manhattan Theatre Club. A sample of his work can be seen free of charge on YouTube – a short film titled No Peanuts for Brooks McGill . Rich plays McGill in the film. The chief supporting actor is Teddy Atlas. Rich welcomed the opportunity when it was suggested that he try his hand at ring announcing. A bit of history: Early ring announcers shouted into megaphones to be heard by the crowd – or at least by those within shouting distance. Then microphones came into play. For decades, Giovanni Addonizio (known to the public as Johnny Addie) was boxing’s best-known ring announcer. Addie began announcing in the late 1930s and was hired by Madison Square Garden in 1948. He called virtually every major fight at The Garden (including the March 8, 1971, “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier) until his untimely death in 1971 at age 69. His ring announcing credits included Sugar Ray Robinson vs. Joey Maxim at Yankee Stadium, Ali vs. Jerry Quarry in Atlanta and hundreds of small fight cards at New York City venues like St. Nicholas Arena, Sunnyside Gardens and Jamaica Arena. The best ring announcers are consistent and technically sound with a unique persona. Buffer heads the list. His trademark (and trademarked) phrase, “LET’S GET R-R-R-READY TO RUMBL-L-L-L-E!” has become part of the pageantry of boxing. His presence confers legitimacy on a fight, making it seem bigger and more important than might otherwise be the case. “The most important thing about ring announcing,” Buffer says, “is that I always remember the fighters are the stars. The cheers are for them, not me. I never forget that.”
David Diamante, who’s regarded by many as Buffer’s likely successor, is in accord and notes, “I never lose sight of the fact that it’s not about me. It’s about the fighters. They’re the ones who go in the ring and risk their lives.” Several weeks before O’Brien’s debut as a ring announcer, Diamante spoke with him on the telephone and offered advice. “There’s no school for ring announcing,” David counseled. “It’s on-the-job training. You’ll learn as you go. But you don’t just get in the ring on fight night and do it. Even now, I think out in advance what I want to say. And then I rehearse it. It’s like live theater. You only have one shot. Do your homework. Implement a style that you feel comfortable with. And you’ll be fine.” One day before the fights, Rich went to the weigh-in and asked the fighters he’d be introducing whether they had nicknames and how they’d like to be introduced. On fight night, he arrived at the arena early with a list of details to nail down. How did the microphone work? What would be the cue for him to begin his introductions? How would he get the judges’ scores from the commission? Sony Hall has the ambiance of an old-time fight club. It accommodates 580 fans for boxing and the turnout was good. Rich was dressed in a dark pinstripe suit with a white shirt and conservative tie. Matt Competello (Goldberg’s regular ring announcer who would be calling the last three fights of the evening) shared his notes on the first two fights with Rich. Diamante had come to the fights to offer support and gave Rich some last-minute advice: “Remember, you have to respect the fighters. You have to respect the fans. And you have to respect yourself.” “I’m nervous,” Rich acknowledged. “But not nervous like I was before I fought.” Then it was time. At 7:45 p.m., microphone in hand, O’Brien climbed up four steps into the blue corner of
the ring. He looked a bit like Broderick Crawford, the actor who won an Academy Award for his starring role in the 1949 film All the King’s Men . The timekeeper rang the bell five times in quick succession, signaling that Rich’s moment had come. The ring was his stage. He introduced Krisi Ardito, who sang the national anthem. Then … “This is the first fight of the evening …” The names of the judges and referee and the fighter introductions followed. Donte Layne knocked out Mirady Lubanzadio Zola in the second round. Rich dutifully announced the result. The next fight was a heavyweight bout. “Now, boxing fans, moving to the second bout of the evening. It means everything to the two men who are about to go into battle …” George “El Montro” Arias vs. Earl “The Flash” Newman was a fast- paced encounter that gave Rich the opportunity to read the 79-73, 78-74, 78-74 scorecards in Arias’ favor. “It was a good first effort,” Diamante said, appraising O’Brien’s performance when the evening was done. “Rich has a good voice and good ring presence. But to do it in a serious way, he’d have to put in a lot of work. If he was a fighter, I’d say that he’s a novice with potential.” Meanwhile, O’Brien will treasure the memory of it all. “I’ve been a boxing fan all my life,” he said afterward. “My last fight was in 1987. I never thought I’d be in a boxing ring again. I’m happy that I had the opportunity to be part of what these boxers do and honored that I had the privilege of standing in the ring to proclaim their merit.” Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – The Most Honest Sport: Two More Years Inside Boxing – is available at Amazon.com. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“I Can Do That” By Thomas Hauser
Actor and ex-fighter Rich O’Brien returned to the ring with microphone in hand.
He won his first bout by knockout. A week later, he fought Rey Rivera (who later represented Puerto Rico at the 1988 Seoul Olympics). “That one went less well,” O’Brien recalls. “I didn’t go down, but they stopped it in the third round.” Including smokers, Rich had 15 amateur fights and won 10 of them. “The good fighters were operating on a different level than I was,” he admits. After graduating from college, O’Brien worked as a reporter and copy editor. In his mid-30s, he decided to change course and began training as a classical singer at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Then he was accepted by the prestigious Juilliard School and segued into acting.
A Boxing Fan Tries His Hand at Ring Announcing B oxing fans listen to the ring announcer on fight night. And unless the man with the microphone is Michael Buffer, they’re likely to think, “I can do that.“ But ring announcing is an art. “Listen to me,” Teddy Atlas says. “You can’t be an actor just by walking onto a stage or getting up in front of a camera and talking. You have to respect the profession, take it seriously, study your craft, work at it. And the same is true of ring announcing. Most of the guys doing it today are like a box filled with trinkets that are worth a dollar
a dozen. You can pull a trinket out of the box, but it will never be worth its own box. Too many of these guys are hard to listen to. Each one has his own signature phrase and thinks he’ll be the next big star. They think it’s easy. And it’s not.” On September 19, promoter Larry Goldberg gave a boxing fan named Rich O’Brien the opportunity to be the ring announcer for the first two bouts on his fight card at Sony Hall in New York. O’Brien is 60 years old and grew up in Queens. His father was an NYPD detective who took Rich to the Golden Gloves finals at Madison Square Garden each year. Rich was drawn to boxing and eventually entered the tournament.
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