"He's my half-brother?! Are you kidding me?!" | Hotboxin

you have such a um such an interesting life you know meeting your brother michael and your guys happen to be doing the same stuff and your acclaim too you know you guys are both on top of your game and how's that feel you know it's amazing because um back in the 80s you know when you were lighting up the ring and cover sports illustrated i'm following you like there's no tomorrow and all the other great boxers of the era because that was the one of the greatest errors in boxing that was really amazing no no no they were magical that's the magical magical every week we saw the best fight the best right and i'm a huge boxing fan my dad was teaching me boxing as a kid right out of the womb we're watching boxing on saturdays you know why world of sports and it was boxing every week boxing boxing boxing out comes this man very handsome debonair james bond looking dressed to the nines brought a whole new flare to the world of announcing and i became a huge fan but i had an issue because every time he came out and they flashed his name on the screen it said michael buffer i used to own telemarketing companies in my 20s right and this is before the internet and like we all did back then when you're in another town you look in the phone book you see it there's a tyson you see if there's a buffer or whatever i never saw my last name in a phone book in any city in the united states and here's this man you know michael buffer and i'm like wow what's going on i started getting this weird feeling in my stomach so i'm calling don king's offices bob aaron i'm trying to get a little more information on the man about six months pass and people are coming up to me is getting more popular and say hey is that your brother michael buffer the guy that goes let's get ready to rumble and i'm like no my brother's brian who i grew up with my whole life so long story cut short my dad and i are taking a road trip up to san francisco one day and i'm like dad i'm telling the same thing i'm telling you people are coming up to me it's almost daily now because boxing's the water cooler conversation on a monday after the weekend fights and i said dad do you have any idea who this is and i got this mike i think that's your brother yeah the hell of a dude what i'm like 29 years old i'm like are you kidding me and he said well son i never told you i and he never told me he was married briefly um when he was around 20 it was during world war ii he was called overseas to do his part in the war he came back a child was born a divorce ensued and the last time he saw the child i think was when he was two and a half years old and you know it's one of those stories that happens right and so lo and behold uh michael was raised by foster parents i know he explained that to you when he was on his your podcast before um under the name of huber and when he went in the army at around 20 during the vietnam era they said your birth certificate says you're michael buffer you're not michael huber right and he had great great parents that raised him and he they stabbed him it's like you're michael buffer and had that not happened we wouldn't be sitting around in this conversation right now wow so that's one of those forks in the road that happens in life so he was doing a an event out here at a small venue uh that the gooses used to put their fights on in the valley that's no longer around and i my brother brian are watching the fights with him tonight and we said dad why don't you call leave a message see if he'll call you back so my dad did michael called back they got together for lunch turned out to be his his son right now i'm like i again i might not have this age exactly correct but i'm like 29 michael's in the area of 43 you know there's a 13-year difference and uh with that being said we got together for dinner as a family after they had that lunch they got along very very well and in walks i'll never forget this night in walks michael looking as amazing as he always looks i'm a huge fan and like okay i'm a fan but now this is my blood this is my brother walking in i can't even begin to tell you what that felt like and we got along great we all got along great and from then on with the companies i owned i had two companies you know successful making the money beach house living the life the whole bit but i was traveling and i would go to vegas i would go to new york i would i would stop in to see the fights michael and i would have dinner we'd go out together 1992 evander holyfield riddick bow one at the thomas and max sold out so i'm in the audience and i'm watching everybody going crazy when michael's doing let's get ready to rumble i mean you've got nicholson jumping up and holding going nuts and everybody's just going nuts right and this light bulb went off in my head because i've been a marketer and a brand or you know a businessman before i'm an announcer my whole life owning a number of different companies i went back to my room that night instead of going out and partying and playing blackjack and all the stuff we love to do and we're in vegas and i sat down and i couldn't stop mike i just kept writing like three pages of notes like trademark this five words properly you know protect it uh keep the boxing ring as his base like the hbo box ring especially branch them out put them in every form of sports and entertainment there is movies ready to rumble tv shows thinking video games toys you know thinking all the stuff that can be done and i just couldn't stop it's like i'm just sitting there and i'm just going like this so i contacted michael again long story cut short i basically in so many words said michael i i want to make you richer and more famous than you ever dreamed hopefully myself in the process i'm willing to sell my two companies i'm burned out i'm not passionate about what i do anymore because i live my life on passion everything i do i do with passion right and i had this passionate moment thinking what i could do with him is his partner and i said let's the best thing to do here is i want to become your manager right and also want to become your partner because not only do i want to help you get in every form of sports and entertainment take these five words put it on the tip of everybody's tongue make it part of american culture i called it the clarion call to the pure integrity of the competitive spirit that was my term for let's get ready to rumble like you know every time you hear it it's like we got to go out and do our thing right and michael in so many words said how are you going to do it and i said i don't know but if i'm going to give all this up you better believe i'm gonna make this happen lo and behold uh became his manager became partners started working it due to his brilliant ability to perform and do everything he does so well i mean let's face it he's legendary the greatest announcer of all time right there's no question and i say that with complete respect and love for my brother and um it just went on and it caught on and everything started catching and the first product i have i would go to trade shows you know around the country and i would make i go to kinkos and make these promo kits they cost me fifteen dollars a kit back then because you know everything was different back then and i'd stock up on them and i'd walk the floors and i'd shake hands and take names and i'd see products that would be great with let's get ready to rumble on it and i pitched to people on it and i was just an animal i go to the boxing events and i'm shaking hands and taking names and making appearance deals for him any way i can and things that come across michael's desk he's handing me to take care of for him and it just started building and within a year our first product was a talking key chain right it was a boxing glove when you press the button of course let's get rid of your rumble came out of it right and there was also a mug you know that had like a football on it for football and you watched football and you pressed the button and drinking i said let's get ready to rumble that was our first two products and then it just started taking off and our big hit was the ready to rumble boxing video game if you ever played video games it came out in the house yeah yeah and when we came out with the ready to rumble boxing video game in the first 24 hours along with nine other games that were released with the dreamcast system uh combined it did like 97.1 million dollars in sales in 24 hours right which has been surpassed since then by call of duty and all that but it was either variety or hollywood phenomenon yeah it was phenomenal yeah phenomenal yeah exactly and we're just you know it's like we're making entertainment and sports history here as we go along and it just started feeding my fire you know and i just kept going and i sold the two companies i quit with the money i had in the bank because sometimes you just got to go for it right which you know better than anybody and you know better than anybody it's taking what i call the puncher's chance so we went for it and it just all worked out beautifully michael and i we get along great it's it's teamwork it's total teamwork he does what he does i'm the man behind the man behind the rumble you know the sheriff of the rumble the man behind the rumble but michael's the talent it's michael's he did it he created it and it's just a beautiful story something that we both take away from the business and the brains is it safe to say the business in their brains take a business and a brand you know it's just i saw it i realized where it could go and i just wanted to put everything i could into it to do what i told him i was going to do which make him richer and more famous in the evergreen [Music] you

Channel: Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson Clips

Views: 145,139

Rating: 4.9449224 out of 5

Keywords: #letsgetreadytorumble, rumble, boxing, ufc, mma, combatsports, combat sports, Dana White, Bruce Buffer, Mike Tyson, Tyson, Zab Judah, Joe Rogan, JRE, Las Vegas, Hotboxin

Id: lbam_2o-Rh8

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021