There is but a mere three absolute certainties in this funny little thing we call life, dear friends: death, taxes, and UFC play-by-play guy Mike Goldberg somehow managing to fuck up such complex tasks as “saying his own name.”
Sadly that particular drinking game trigger is soon to be no more, with the Ultimate Fighting Championship confirming that the MMA mainstay will be calling his final match for the company at the imminent UFC 207 event on New Year’s Eve.
Dana White confirmed the long-held speculation that Goldberg would be out the door as the UFC’s primary play-by-play man at the end of the year in a rare media appearance ahead of the event.
Goldberg began with the company way back in 1997 after a career calling ice hockey for local-area markets in Detroit and Minnesota. Over the year’s Goldberg’s distinctly carnival-like delivery became synonymous with UFC broadcasts. But it was his ability to muff even the simplest of terms – including his own name and the name of the company he worked for – that drew widespread mocking and derision amongst hardcore fans.
‘Course live sports commentary isn’t exactly the easiest gig in the world, it should be said. Let’s not even get started on the broadcaster’s nightmare that is “Any card with Joanna Jedrzejczyk on it.” How anyone got away from that night with an unexploded head is utterly beyond me.
Regardless, the new ownership of the UFC has reportedly been keen to move away from the slightly carny-like tone of current UFC commentary, and thus Goldberg is out the door after 19 years at the helm.
Dana’s obviously stayed loyal to the guy who got in before things really blew up, kinda like that one guy at work who isn’t real great at his job but he isn’t technically bad enough to fire so he just sorta hovers around day-in day-out bogarting all the fkn choc ripples in the tea room.
But business is business. And while Joe Rogan is quite obviously being kept on as the UFC’s resident Dana White doppelgänger, for Goldberg, once and for all, it is all over.
Source: MMA Junkie.
Photo: Josh Hedges, Zuffa LLC/Getty.
