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Jim Ross wasn't confident that he would get to broadcast an MMA event

Posted: Oct 2nd 2014 By: Steven Muehlhausen

Jim Ross is one of the greatest broadcasters of all time. He is up there with the likes of Vin Scully, Chick Hearn and Harry Caray.

Ross will make his long awaited MMA broadcasting debut on Friday night for BattleGrounds MMA alongside former UFC star Chael Sonnen. The eight-man, one-night tournament will take place live on pay-per-view from the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma for $19.95 starting at 10 p.m. ET. Ross wasn't always sure that he would get an opportunity to broadcast an MMA event.
Jim Ross (BattlegroundsMMA.com)

"I've always wanted too (broadcast MMA), but I wasn't overly confident that it would ever happen," Ross told Sporting News. "I'm very grateful that the opportunity has been presented and I'm very excited about Friday, October 3. I'm preparing as diligently as I can. To be honest with you and to answer your question, the answer would probably be no. But the opportunity has come about and I'm really excited that the BattleGround folks have put their confidence in me to be the play-by-play guy for this show. We are going to rock and roll on Friday, October 3."

In the past, Ross had discussions to get into MMA, but he ended going back to the WWE. He left the WWE in September of 2013 and a fellow Oklahoma native reached out to him to see if he would be interested to finally dive into MMA.

"Bryan O'Rourke (BattleGrounds MMA promoter) got ahold of me," Ross said. "Bryan's an Oklahoma guy and has been a fan of my work, which I'm happy to say. He knew I was a fan of the MMA genre and that I was available because I was no longer employed at WWE."

After leaving WWE, Ross wanted to get into new ventures and has done that with a successful podcast known as "The Ross Report" and did boxing play-by-play for Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions on Fox Sports 1 in May.

"I made it very clear to people that I wanted to do new things while I still had the energy, the attitude and the desire after I left WWE to do some different things including my podcast, which I had never considered doing and I'm grateful to do it," Ross said. "I had always wanted to do boxing because I've been a fan since I was a kid. I did that with Fox and will probably do more boxing with them if all the details can be worked out with Golden Boy Promotions. The MMA thing was always right there with broadcasting a college football game on television as one of things I'd like to say I did in my career. So, BattleGrounds made this opportunity available and my manager worked out the deal with Bryan (O'Rourke)."

Before Ross would agree to do the show, he had some conditions including who he wanted to work with on the show.

"I told my manager we have to make sure it doesn't conflict with Oklahoma college football and it didn't," Ross said. "After the show is over, I'm going down to Fort Worth, Texas and watch OU play football on Saturday afternoon. Then, I was concerned as to who I would be working with. I suggested to the promotion and to my manager that we can contact Chael Sonnen to see if he was interested or available. Chael and I had never met. We've texted before, talked on the phone and emailed each other. As far as sitting down and having a beer, talking broadcasting or MMA, we haven't done that yet. So if we have chemistry, it will be organic, it will be real. It won't be manufactured or phony. It will be real and I think we really have a chance to be good because of him. I'm the point guard in this operation. I'm the guy that's going to facilitate getting him involved and letting his knowledge, his wit and personality be exploited. I know my role as The Rock would say. I'm looking forward to being a facilitator on this team."

People were skeptical of the choice of Sonnen due to his two failed random drug tests earlier this year, which led to his release from the UFC and his broadcasting duties at Fox Sports . Ross has always been a fan of Sonnen's and felt it would be a good fit.

"My instincts told me we would have chemistry," Ross said. "My instincts told me that there was something there, an intangible that was good and we had some chemistry that we would mesh. To be honest with you, I thought he was one of the brightest spots on the Fox presentation of the UFC. The studio guys were entertaining and informative. I thought Chael was the star of the show. I thought he was there John Madden. I thought he was their star and was really a fan of his work."

Ross worked with a lot of personalities in his WWE tenure, but Sonnen reminds him of one particular person during that run.

"He (Sonnen) reminded me of Paul Heyman," Ross said. "Paul was abrasive, quick-witted, had great product knowledge, really good timing, knew when to be serious, be a bad guy and when to be entertaining. I just thought it would work, but didn't know if he would have any interest or any legal restrictions on what he can do. Luckily, he didn't. I think I can help him from a broadcasting side of keeping the rug in the water and driving the train."

Ross has also broadcasted college football and basketball games, NFL and XFL games in his legendary career. He knows he isn't an MMA expert and feels Sonnen will be the one to stir the drink.

"I'm not going to go on the show and pretend I'm an MMA expert all of a sudden," Ross said. "But I'm also not ashamed of my background of being in pro wrestling. I'm a broadcaster. I've broadcasted NFL and XFL games. I worked my way through college broadcasting college football and basketball on a little local radio station. I've got a background there, but people won't see that. Chael's the straw that's going to stir the drink. He may not know that yet, but he can't score if he doesn't have the ball. I plan on making sure he has the ball plenty of times to do what he does naturally. He doesn't have to be anything other than what he is."

Criticism has come about due to Ross' background in WWE and the nature of Sonnen. Ross has stayed away from hearing the criticism and hope fans give the show a chance on Friday night.

"It is unfortunate that I'll be discounted and people won't buy the show because of me being a pro wrestling guy," Ross said. 'They'll say, "what business does he have doing my MMA? Hey, I'm probably as big of a fan of MMA as you are."

"I plan on respecting the show, respecting the genre and the athletes. I love being around athletes. I can relate to them and communicate with them. I really haven't received any backlash from the MMA diehards. I haven't gone on and researched what somebody has written about it. I haven't sought out the criticism nor have I sought out the adulation. My fan base that follows me on Twitter for example are looking forward to by in large are looking forward to hearing me do play-by-play again. There will be criticisms, its inevitable, but maybe I can change their minds or dissuade them from prejudging others in other situations. All we can do is work hard, be genuine, really honest and I think we will be just fine. I truly do. Will the criticism be there? Sure, I got criticized for doing pro wrestling. But hopefully, the fans give us a shot on Friday night to see what we got to offer."