The Triangle Choke: Michael Schiavello Interview
HDNet announcer Michael "The Voice" Schiavello talks about his MMA announcing career
Michael Schiavello, known simply as the voice, is one of the premier MMA play by play announcers in the world. Known for his clever catch phrases and quick wit, Schiavello has developed quite a reputation covering MMA and K-1 events worldwide. Teaming with MMA legend Guy Mezger, who Schiavello refers to as the Wikipedia of MMA, Schiavello has helped bring global attention to events outside of the UFC and Strikeforce. The Voice spent some time with ProFighting-fans.com Editor-in-Chief Scott Dryden and spoke of his background and of course his not-so-friendly references regarding his ex-girlfriend.
SD- Hey Michael, speak about your history in MMA.
MS- The 1 st event I ever commentated was the 1 st cage fight in Australia back in 1996 called Caged Combat. It was a tournament which was won by Mario Sperry when he defeated Chris Haseman. Elvis Sinosic also made his debut at that event. Vernon Tiger White also fought. It was quite a big event. It was a little before its time as MMA was unknown and really didn’t take off till years later in Australia. Even though it was before its time it sold out the Sydney Convention Center. That was my first MMA event as a commentator. I really didn’t commentate MMA again until I was given a call from K-1for Dynamite in 2006. I did some small shows in Australia but Dynamite was what got me back on the international stage. Since then its been pretty busy.
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Michael Schiavello with Guy Mezger |
SD- Did you announce other sports prior to MMA and in between?
MS- My commentating career actually began in high school when I commentated track & field for the APS Athletics Championships which is the High School Championships in Victoria at Olympic Park in Melbourne when I was 16 years old. I still have the videos from them. I dug them out a few weeks ago and the funny thing is even back then I was saying stuff like good night Irene and one-liners even for track & field which was really strange. When I was 17 & 18 years old I did a lot of soccer commentary on radio. Every weekend I was doing that. Then when I was 21 years old I got a call from a local kickboxing promoter here in Melbourne and he wanted me to commentate on his videos for his shows. I had never commentated on fight shows before but I thought it would be fun to do and I would like to give it a crack. So I did it and I was good at it. Another promoter heard that and asked me to do his video for him. Right at that same time cable TV was just coming to Australia which is called Foxtel. They saw some videos of me commentating and asked me to come do it for them. So I started commentating for them in 1997 and I’ve been doing it ever since.
SD- We will get into your famous one-liners in a second. First talk about what it’s like working with Guy Mezger and HDNET Fights.
MS- It has been the most incredible experience ever. How that came to be was HDNET knew about me last year from hearing me on the K-1 broadcasts and they were looking at broadcasting K-1 themselves. Of course as you know the 1 st broadcast they did was the K-1 Grand Prix last December which was huge going to 138 countries and live for the 1 st time ever in the USA. It just so happened that Mark Cuban was watching that show live. I think that was the 1 st time Mark had heard me and I think I made him laugh quite a bit. There were a couple of my one-liners he really liked. He got on the phone with Andrew Simon, who is the CEO of HDNET, and told him look I’m really enjoying this guy let’s look at signing him up. How it happened was I was on my way to Jamaica in June of this year to do a WMC Muay Thai show in Montego Bay. I was traveling through LAX and I got a call from Andrew Simon. He basically said Mark Cuban has heard you and he is a fan of yours, we are a fan of yours and we are looking to change things up a bit at HDNET. We enjoy the image you bring, the different style of commentary and your knowledge. How would you feel if we offered you a contract. I was blown away. This was something I had been hoping for to get a US television contract and HDNET is the bomb because they do everything. They partnered me up with Guy Mezger as you know. Not only is Guy a fantastic human being and a good guy to hang with but his knowledge is superb. That is why I call him the human Wikipedia of Mixed-Martial Arts. He knows everything. He spots moves before they come and he teaches me a lot. We have gelled really well and we get along really well both socially and professionally. We have a lot of things in common socially. I’m enjoying every moment of it. I’m totally blessed. I have the best job in the world.
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SD- Even with Guy’s professionalism, I occasionally see him crack a smile or even chuckle when you pull out a one-liner.
MS- Guy is that typical clean-cut sort of being. I have to give him credit though as it is kind of hard for someone new to come along and commentate with me because my style is so over the top and intense. For someone like Guy who usually is so straight, I wanted to get that looser side out of him. In the last few shows I have really found that. He will have a laugh and joke around as I call him things like sexy beast #1 which is a running joke between the two of us. I sort of feel if we are having fun on the broadcast then everyone is having fun. No matter how great or how shit the fights may be the viewers are going to have fun as well. That is what it is all about at the end of the day. It is entertaining, informing and just having fun during some of the best fight shows in the world.
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SD- Talk about how you come up with your lines. Do you sit at home and work on new lines? My favorites are the ones where you insult your ex girlfriend. How does she take that?
MS-(Laughs) I’ll give you a funny story here. You know what the weirdest thing is I just began going out with a new girlfriend who is rocking my world. Her name is Irene! How is that for the strangest irony of all time (Michael’s catch cry of Good Night Irene is well known across the world to all fight fans)! I never thought I would end up with someone named Irene, but I guess the universe attracts what you put out and I have been screaming her name for 16 years. I don’t sit down and consciously thing about one-liners. I’ll be on the airplane, lying in my hotel room or driving the car and something will trigger my mind or imagination and I’ll be like oh shit that could actually be quite funny. I’ll scribble it down or type it into my phone so I don’t forget it. Most of it is just spontaneous during the show. I’ll just be commentating and it will just pop into my head. For example I did a show a couple of years ago, I even forgot about this, when a friend was talking about the spontaneity of my mind. He said I remember one of the fighters fell out of the ring onto the trophies which were made of glass and the glass all smashed on the floor; he remembered me saying quickly there is more smashed glass here than a Jewish wedding! Things just pop into my head sort of straight away. God blessed me with a sort of natural talent to do that. It’s not like there is a long list of premeditated one-lines where I say I’ll stick this here and that there. You couldn’t possibly do that because you don’t know what is going to happen during a fight. Yeah I hang it on my ex-girlfriend, why not? She was dirty slut! She cops that reputation now on global television! Haha revenge is a dish best served vocally!
SD- I would like for you to speak about the fanaticism and loyalty of the Japanese fans specifically to a guy like Minowaman.
MS- I’ve been a huge fan of him going back to his Pride Fighting Championship days. Like I said in the commentary he is the Hulk Hogan of Mixed-Martial Arts. I’m talking about when Hulkamania was running wild in the early 90’s. That is like Minowaman mania at the moment. The guy is phenomenal. He is like 5’10” and weighs 86 Kilos (189 LBS). He has fought guys like Butterbean and Hong Man Choi and for most of the time he beats these guys. The thing about him is he has an incredible fighting style. He is so brave and will use rolling kicks and jumping drop kicks. He shoots in for a single leg takedown on 7’2” Hong Man Choi which is just incredible. He heal hooks the guy to win it. It’s just the whole show he does with the fist pumps in the air, the way he runs down the ring Ultimate Warrior style, the mullet which dates back to 1992. It’s not fashionable but Minowa makes it fashionable. The red Speedos that no one would be caught dead in even at the picture of summer but somehow Minowa makes red Speedos fashionable again; add to it he is a really nice guy. The last show at Dream 11 I wanted to give a tribute to the fan club of Minowa. There are all these internet fans of Minowaman all over the world. I thought there were just a few of them but there are hundreds of these guys everywhere on these message boards. They follow everything that Minowman does. I’m really fortunate. They sent me a couple of T-shirts earlier this week. I’m thrilled that the American audience is getting a look at Minowman because to me he is the consummate Mixed-Martial Arts fighter, technical fighter and he also brings that pro wrestling style of entertainment.
SD- He is an exciting fighter. I liked your reference to the former pro wrestler Nikolai Volkoff. I doubt that too many got one but the wrestling fans loved that one.
MS- (laughs) I was tossing it up between Nikolai Volkoff and Tito Santana. Red Speedos for me was always Nikolai Volkoff.
SD- What are your thoughts on Fedor who is getting more established in the US? To me he is not only the greatest today but greatest of all time. What are your thoughts on Fedor?
MS- I totally agree. To me he is the greatest MMA fighter of all time. He is the #1 fighter in the world I believe in any combat sport. Even if you are talking K-1, Boxing, Mixed-Martial Arts; I put Fedor above everyone else. He fights Brett Rogers soon. I believe Fedor wins that fight however Fedor wants to win that fight, whenever Fedor wants to win that fight. I believe Brett Rogers will have the first punch of the fight and once that punch is thrown that will be the end of Brett Rogers’ chances of beating Fedor. Fedor is that damn good. There is nothing he does not do. He has got a really good chin, fantastic submissions, he can sub you from the bottom, he can sub you from the top, he can stand and trade, he has beautiful striking and the other thing about him is he is super quick for a guy his size. He is faster than any other heavyweight we have seen. He is proficient both standing and on the ground. I think he beats anyone at the moment. He probably should have gone to the UFC now and fought Brock Lesnar now because I think he would have had his way with Brock pretty easily at the moment. Given another year’s time and the way that Brock Lesnar is exponentially increasing his ability in MMA it might be a different story given Brock’s natural ability and aggression. The fact is that Brock is a brilliant natural athlete. People talk about him as a Pro Wrestler but you have to remember he was a Collegiate National Champion as well. The guy had a shake at the NFL as well if I remember correctly. He is a natural athlete who wants to learn. He is one of those guys that is like a sponge who soaks it all in. That becomes a very dangerous fight if Fedor signs with the UFC in a year’s time. With that said, at the moment Fedor is king and no one comes close to him.
SD- Speak about what you have coming up on HDNET Fights.
MS- This weekend (10-25) we of course have Dream 12. This time Dream goes into the cage for the 1 st time which is an experiment for Dream. It will be interesting to see how it will pull the ratings and how it will go over with the live fans. The next day we shoot up to Tokyo for the K-1 Max Final which is going to be fantastic. We are back in Tokyo on November 7 th for Sengoku. Kevin Randleman is fighting on that show which should be interesting. Then December 5 of course is the K-1 World Grand Prix final which is the Mac-daddy and the Super bowl of striking. Then of course on New Year’s Eve; I can’t reveal yet where we are going to have for you on HDNET. Sengoku has their New Year’s Eve show and Dynamite has their New Year’s Eve show which is always the biggest and best show on the planet. I can’t reveal which way we are going to go on HDNET but it’s going to be a good New Year’s Eve.
SD- Thanks a lot Michael. I enjoyed it!
By Scott Dryden
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer & Editor-in-Chief
Photo courtesy of Michael Schiavello